NewCentury 
Bible 


Chronicles 


Division      iL^*  \^1 
Section 


THE  CENTURY  BIBLE 

^GENESIS,  by  the  Rev.  Prof.  W.  H.  Bennett,  Litt.D.,  D.D. 
EXODUS,  by  the  Rev.  Prof.  W.  H.  Bennett,  Litt.D.,  D.D. 
LEVITICUS  AND  NUMBERS,  by  the  Rev.  Prof.  A.  R.  S.  Kennedy,  M.A.,  D.D. 
DEUTERONOMY  AND  JOSHUA,  by  the  Rev.  Prof.  H.  Wheeler  Robinson, 

-M.A.,  B.D. 
*JUDGES  AND  RUTH,  by  the  Rev.  G.  W.  Thatcher,  M.A.,  B.D. 
*I  AND  II  SAMUEL,  by  the  Rev.  Prof.  A.  R.  S.  Kennedy,  M.A.,  D.D. 
*I  AND  II  KINGS,  by  the  Rev.  Prof.  Skinner,  D.D. 
I  AND  II  CHRONICLES,  by  the  Rev.  W.  Harvey-Jellie,  M.A.,  B.D. 
EZRA,  NEHEMIAH,  AND  ESTHER,  by  the  Rev.  Prof.  T.  WiTTON  D.IVIES, 
B.A.,  Ph.D. 
*JOB,  by  Prof.  A,  S.  Peake,  M.A.,  B.D. 

*PSALMS  (Vol.  I)  I  TO  LXXII,  by  the  Rev.  Prof.  Davison,  M.A.,  D.D. 
*PSALMS  (Vol.  II;  LXXIII  TO  END,  by  the  Rev.  Prof.  T.  Witton  Davies, 
B.A.,  Ph.D. 
PROVERBS,    ECCLESIASTES,    and     SONG    OF    SOLOMON,     by    the 
Rev.  Prof.  G.  CuRRiE  Martin,  M.A.,  B.D. 
*ISAIAH,  by  the  Rev.  Principal  Whitehouse,  M.A.,  D.D. 
ISAIAH  XL-LXIII,  by  the  Rev.  Principal  Whitehouse,  M.A.,  D.D. 
JEREMIAH  AND  LAMENTATIONS,  by  Prof.  Peake,  M.A.,  B.D. 
EZEKIEL,  by  the  Rev.  Prof.  W.  F.  Lofthouse.  M.A. 
DANIEL,  by  the  Rev.  Prof.  R.  H.  Charles,  D.D. 
*MINOR  PROPHETS:  HosEA,  ToEL,  Amos,  Obadiah,  Jonah,  Micah,  by  the 

Rev.  R.  F.  HORTON,  M.A.,  D.D. 
*MINOR  PROPHETS:  Nahum,  Habakkuk,  Zephaniah,  Haggai,  Zechakiah, 
MalACHI,   by  the    Rev.  Canon  DRIVER,  Litt.D.  D.D. 

*i.  MATTHEW,  by  the  Rev.  Prof.  W.  F.  Sl.\ter,  M.A. 

*2.  MARK,  by  the  late  Principal  Salmond,  D.D. 

*3.  LUKE,  by  Principal  W.  F.  Adeney,  M.A.,  D.D. 

*4.  JOHN,  by  the  Rev.  J.  A.  M^Clymont,  D.D. 

*«;.  ACTS,  by  the  Rev.  Prof.  J.  Vernon  Bartlet,  M.A.,  D.D. 

*6.  ROMANS,  by  the  Rev.  Prof.  A.  E.  Garvie,  M.A.,  D.D. 

*7.  I  .^ND  II  CORINTHIANS,  by  Prof.  J.  Massie.  M.A..  D.D. 

*8.  EPHESI.\NS,    COLOSSIANS,    PHILEMON,    PHILIPPIANS,    by   the 
Rev.  Prof.  G.  CuRRiE  Martin,  M.A.,  B.D. 

*Q.  I  AND  II  THESSALONIANS,  GALATIANS,  by  Principal  W.  F.  Adeney, 

M.A.,  D.D. 
»io.  THE  PASTORAL  EPISTLES,  by  the  Rev.  R.  F.  Horton,  M.A.,  D.D. 
♦ii.  HEBREWS,  by  Prof  A.  S.  Peake,  M.A.,  B.D. 
*I2.  THE  GENERAL  EPISTLES,  by  the  Rev.  Prof.  W.  H.  Bennett,  Litt.D., 

D.D. 
*i3.  REVELATION,  by  the  Rev.  C.  Anderson  Scott,  M..'\. 

[Those  tnarkcd^^  are  already  published.'] 


THE    NEW-CENTURY    BIBLE 

CHRONICLES 


OXFORD 
HORACE   HART,    I'kK^TEK    TO    THE    UNIVERSITY 


H/ 


General  Editor  : 
Principal  Walter  F.  Adeney,  M.A.,  D.D, 


C&vonicke 


INTRODUCTION 

REVISED   VERSION   WITH    NOTES 

INDEX  AND    MAP 


^/^  EDITED    liY    THE    REV. 

W.  R.  HARVEY-JELLIE,  M.A.,  B.D.  (Lond.) 


JAN    3  1910      *' 


NEW  YORK:  HENRY  FROWDE 

OXFORD    UNIVERSITY    PRESS,    AMERICAN    BRANCH 

EDINBURGH  :  T.  C.  Sc  E.  C.  JACK 
iyo6 


The  Rp.visF.n  Version  is  printed  by  permission  of  the 
Universities  of  Oxford  and  Cambridge 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

Introduction  .........         i 

Text  of  the  Revised  Version  with  Annotations  33 

Index 327 


Map  of  Syria,  Assyria,  and  Babylonia. 
Plan  of  Jerusalem. 


THE  BOOK  OF  THE  CHRONICLES 

INTRODUCTION 


I  AND  II    CHRONICLES 

INTRODUCTION 

§  I.    Title  and  Position  of  the  Book. 

In  our  English  Bible  the  Book  of  Chronicles  bears  a 
different  title  and  occupies  a  different  place  from  that  which 
was  originally  assigned  to  it  in  the  Hebrew  Scriptures. 
The  reader  of  the  English  version  naturally  regards  this 
ancient  history  as  consisting  of  two  distinct  books,  which 
he  knows  as  the  '  Books  of  the  Chronicles  ' ;  moreover,  he 
finds  them  placed  in  a  position  which  is  apparently  the 
topically  correct  one,  immediately  after  the  Books  of  the 
Kings.  In  the  earliest  Hebrew  MSS.  the  entire  work 
formed  but  one  book,  bearing  the  title  of  '  Events  of  the 
Times '  and  being  placed  at  the  very  end  of  the  Hebrew 
Scriptures.  These  differences  are  readily  explained  by  the 
history  of  the  compilation  of  the  O.  T 

Turning  to  the  Hebrew  Bible  we  find  that  the  books 
which  compose  the  O.  T.  canon  were  collected  into  three 
groups,  corresponding  roughly  to  the  stages  of  the  divine 
revelation.  The  first  of  these  groups,  spoken  of  as  *'  the 
Law '  (or  Torah),  consisted  of  the  five  books  which  form  our 
Pentateuch.  The  second  group,  known  by  the  general 
title  of '  The  Prophets  *  (or  Nebfim)^  was  divided  into  the 
*  Former  Prophets '  and  the  '  Latter  Prophets.'  Of  these, 
the  '  Former  Prophets  '  included  the  four  Books  of  Joshua, 
Judges,  Samuel,  and  Kings,  while  the  '  Latter  Prophets  ' 
included  four  other  collections  of  writings,  viz.  the  Books  of 
Isaiah,  Jeremiah,  Ezekiel,  and  the  book  of  the  twelve  (or 
minor)  Prophets.  The  third  group,  designated  *  Writings ' 
(or  Kethubwi),  consisted  of  the  remaining  books.  This 
p.    2 


4  I   AND   II   CHRONICLES 

last  group  was  always  regarded  as  inferior  in  value  to  the 
two  groups  which  preceded  it,  and  the  arrangement  of 
the  books  it  contained  was  entirely  topical.  First  came  the 
three  poetical  Books  of  Psalms,  Proverbs,  and  Job  ;  then 
followed  five  works,  known  as  the  Megilloth  (or  Rolls), 
which  were  read  on  feast  days  in  the  later  synagogues,  viz. 
Canticles,  Ruth,  Lamentations,  Ecclesiastes,  and  Esther  ; 
and  finally  there  came  the  later  historical  books,  Daniel, 
Ezra,  Nehemiah,  and  the  Chronicles. 

It  is  impossible  to  say  precisely  at  what  period  of  Jewish 
history  this  last  group  of  writings  was  collected,  but  it  is 
highly  probable  that  they  were  being  gathered  together  at 
the  very  time  when  the  books  of  the  '  Former  Prophets  ' 
were  being  put  into  their  present  literary  form.  Still  it  was 
by  a  gradual  process  and  solely  on  the  ground  of  their  in- 
trinsic worth  that  these  <  Latter  Prophets  '  won  their  way 
at  a  comparatively  late  date  to  their  place  in  the  accepted 
canon  of  the  Hebrew  Scriptures. 

But  the  position  which  was  eventually  assigned  to  the 
Book  of  Chronicles  in  the  Hebrew  Scriptures  was  not  the 
same  as  that  which  it  originally  occupied  in  the  MS.  of 
the  compiler.  Reference  to  the  book  itself  discloses  the 
fact  that  the  last  verse  of  the  book  breaks  off  in  the  middle 
of  a  sentence.  The  complete  sentence  is  found  in  the 
opening  verses  of  the  Book  of  Ezra  (i.  1-3),  where  the  whole 
of  the  edict  of  Cyrus  is  given,  whereas  the  Chronicles  only 
record  its  opening  sentences.  Thus  Ezra  i.  1-3  gives  the 
correct  reading  of  the  broken  passage  which  now  stands  as 
2  Chron.  xxxvi.  22-23.  ^u*  we  also  find  that  in  the  older 
collections  of  the  Hebrew  writings  the  Books  of  Ezra  and 
Nehemiah  formed  a  single  work.  And  the  evident  deduc- 
tion which  has  been  made  from  these  facts  is  that  the  two 
Books  of  Chronicles  together  with  the  Books  of  Ezra  and 
Nehemiah  originally  constituted  one  book.  This  conclusion 
is  borne  out  by  the  fact  that  these  books,  when  read  consecu- 
tively, are  seen  to  contain  a  remarkably  harmonious  compen- 
dium of  Hebrew  history.    Briefly  summarizing  the  history  of 


INTRODUCTION  5 

the  chosen  race  from  Adam  to  David,  they  present  a  fairly 
full  account  of  the  fortunes  of  the  Jewish  people  from  David's 
day  to  the  return  from  the  great  Captivity,  viewed  through- 
out from  the  standpoint  of  a  Levite  of  the  second  Temple. 
And  the  history  thus  narrated  is  written  in  a  style  which  is 
absolutely  unique  among  the  O.  T.  writings,  yet  which  is 
quite  uniform  in  the  four  books.  At  the  same  time,  the 
same  view  of  history  prevails,  and  the  same  interests  pre- 
dominate in  them  all.  These  facts  are  sufficient  proof  of 
the  original  unity  of  this  comprehensive  historic  work,  the 
Chronicles-Ezra-Nehemiah  ;  but  we  have  yet  to  account 
for  their  subsequent  separation  even  in  Hebrew  MSS. 

The  period  of  history  covered  by  the  Book  of  the 
Chronicles  had  already  been  treated  with  approximate 
fulness  and  accuracy  in  the  Books  of  Samuel  and  Kings 
(originally  another  single  work).  But  the  narrative  of 
Kings  concluded  with  the  captivity  of  Judah.  Hence 
later  generations  felt  the  need  of  a  supplement  which  treated 
of  the  post-exilic  period.  Consequently  some  later  scribe, 
finding  precisely  such  a  supplement  in  the  concluding  por- 
tion of  the  composite  work  'Chronicles-Ezra-Nehemiah,' 
seems  to  have  divided  the  MS.  in  such  a  way  as  to  be 
able  to  add  the  portion  '  Ezra-Nehemiah  '  to  the  existing 
collection  of  MSS.  Somehow  it  occurred  that,  when  the 
division  was  made,  the  opening  verses  of '  Ezra '  were  still 
copied  and  allowed  to  remain  in  their  present  truncated 
form  at  the  end  of  the  Chronicles,  with  the  result  already 
pointed  out,  that  Chronicles  ends  in  the  midst  of  a  sentence^. 
In  course  of  time,  however,  the  intrinsic  value  of  Chronicles 
was  also  recognized,  and  the  standpoint  of  its  author  was 
seen  to  be  so  completely  in  harmony  with  later  Jewish 
ideas  as  to  give  it  an  increasing  importance.    Hence  it,  too, 


^  Kittel,  differing  from  most  critics,  regards  the  presence 
of  the  opening  sentences  of  the  edict  of  Cyrus  at  the  end  of 
Chronicles  as  the  mere  addition  of  a  later  scribe  who  wished 
to  give  a  more  harmonious  close  to  the  Judaean  history. 


6  I   AND    II    CHRONICLES 

found  its  way  into  the  O.  T.  canon,  being  appended  to  what 
was  in  reality  originally  its  own  supplement. 

The  English  Bible,  however,  following  the  Latin  Vulgate, 
which  in  turn  followed  the  Greek  Version  (the  Septuagint), 
has  restored  the  original  order  of  these  books  and  placed 
the  Chronicles  immediately  after  the  Kings. 

It  is  to  these  later  Greek  and  Latin  versions,  moreover, 
that  we  owe  the  present  title  of  the  book.  In  the  Hebrew 
Scriptures  the  undivided  work  of  the  chronicler  was  simply 
entitled  '  Events  of  the  Times  '  {Dibre  Hayyamim).  The 
Greek  translators  of  Alexandria  divided  the  Chronicles 
into  two,  making  the  division  very  aptly  at  the  end  of  the 
reign  of  David,  and  styling  the  two  books  ^  Paraleipomena^ 
(UapaXcLTTofieva),  which  signifies  'supplements'  or  '  addi* 
tions.'  And,  finally,  the  Dalmatian  scholar  Jerome,  who 
produced  the  Latin  version  known  as  the  Vulgate  in  the 
fourth  century,  gave  to  these  later  histories  the  title '  Lt'der 
Chronicortim^  whence  we  derive  our  title  '  Chronicles.' 

§  2.    Contents  of  the  Chronicles. 

The  Book  of  Chronicles  opens  with  the  name  of  Adam 
and  closes  abruptly  in  the  middle  of  the  edict  of  Cyrus. 
At  the  end  there  stands  a  note  of  the  scribe  (the  Massorite) 
stating  that  I  Chron.  xxvii.  25  is  the  middle  verse  of  the 
book.  This  affords  one  further  proof  that  the  present 
two  books  originally  formed  one ;  yet  there  is  a  fairly 
systematic  arrangement  of  the  contents  of  the  work  which 
justifies  the  division  made  by  the  LXX  and  reveals  a 
deliberate  plan  on  the  part  of  the  author. 

The  work  has  four  main  divisions  :  — 

(1)  I  Chron.  i-ix.     Genealogical    summary    of    history 

from  Adam  to  David. 

(2)  I  Chron.  x-xxix.     History  of  the  reign  of  David. 

(3)  2  Chron.  i-ix.     History  of  the  reign  of  Solomon. 

(4)  2  Chron.  x-xxxvi.     History  of  the  kingdom  of  Judah 

from   the   Disruption   to    the    Return  from  the 
Captivity. 


INTRODUCTION  7 

(i)  In  the  opening  section  the  chronicler  has  nothing 
new  to  record.  He  is  about  to  write  a  history  of  the 
Jewish  Temple  and  its  cultus ;  and  he  determines  to 
preface  it  by  a  summary  of  history  from  the  beginning  of 
the  race.  In  this  he  confines  himself  to  a  series  of  genea- 
logical tables,  most  of  which  are  fragmentary,  which  fall 
almost  naturally  into  six  groups  : — 

(a)  Chap.  i.   From  Adam  to  Abraham  and  the  Edomites. 

{d)  Chap,  ii-iv.  23.  From  Israel  through  Judah  to 
David's  line,  carried  down  to  a  period  almost 
two  centuries  later  than  the  Captivity. 

(c)  Chap.  iv.  24-v.  26.  The  families  of  Simeon  and  the 
Trans-Jordanic  Tribes. 

U^j  Chap.  V.  27-vi.  66.     The  families  of  Levi. 

(<?)  Chap,  vii-viii.  The  famihes  of  Issachar,  Benjamin, 
Naphtah,  half-Manasseh,  Ephraim  and  Asher. 

(/)  Chap.  ix.  The  former  inhabitants  of  Jerusalem  and 
the  family  of  Saul. 

The  chronicler  seems  to  have  taken  a  genuine  delight 
in  genealogies  and  statistics,  and  to  have  spared  no  pains 
in  perfecting  his  compilation  of  census  returns  and  tribal 
family  registers.  Specially  significant  in  this  section  is 
the  prominence  given  to  the  families  of  Judah  and  Levi ; 
and  it  is  noteworthy  that  in  the  course  of  the  work  we 
meet  time  after  time  with  detailed  lists  of  the  Levitic 
choirs  and  orchestras. 

(2)  The  second  section  opens  with  Saul's  overthrow  on 
Mount  Gilboa.  Thence  the  narrative  runs  parallel  to  the 
histories  of  Samuel  and  Kings  in  a  comparatively  full 
account  of  the  reign  of  David.  It  omits,  however,  all 
notice  of  David's  reign  in  Hebron  and  many  details  of 
his  family  history,  but  lays  great  stress  on  matters  which 
concern  the  Levites  and  the  building  of  the  Temple. 

(3)  The  third  section  records  the  reign  of  Solomon,  with 
a  marked  emphasis  upon  the  royal  achievements  in  build- 
ing the  Temple  and  organizing  its  worship. 

(4)  The  fourth  section  is  occupied  with  the  history  of 


8  I    AND    II    CHRONICLES 

the  kingdom  of  Judah,  which  it  traces,  reign  by  reign,  from 
Rehoboam  to  Zedekiah  and  the  Captivity. 

In  the  composition  of  this  work  the  chronicler  evi- 
dently wrote  with  a  specific  aim,  and  naturally  therefore 
he  employed  an  intelligent  method  in  the  selection  of  his 
material.  In  dealing  with  earlier  histories,  whence  he 
compiled  his  narrative,  he  was  obliged  to  proceed  by  a 
process  of  selection  ;  consequently,  there  is  significance  in 
his  omissions  as  well  as  in  his  additions.  With  him,  it 
may  be  said,  speech  is  silver,  silence  is  gold.  Every  line 
omitted  from  the  earlier  histories  is  an  eloquent  testimony 
to  the  change  of  tone  which  had  come  over  the  religious 
world  of  Judaea  between  the  days  of  Zerubbabel,  when 
'Kings'  was  compiled,  and  the  days  of  Alexander  the 
Great,  in  which  the  chronicler  wrote.  Hence  the  omis- 
sions, even  when  they  consist  in  little  more  than  words, 
must  be  studied  with  care  as  a  revelation  of  the  thought 
of  the  age  when  the  work  was  penned.  Among  the  larger 
omissions  we  specially  notice  that  the  genealogical  sum- 
maries pass  over  the  whole  history  of  Abraham,  the  Exodus 
and  the  conquest  of  Canaan. 

In  the  same  way  we  must  carefully  note  the  additions 
which  the  chronicler  makes  to  the  extant  earlier  histories. 
These  additions  are  almost  entirely  concerned  with  the 
history  of  the  Levitic  orders,  the  sanctuaiy  and  the  religious 
feasts  ;  or  they  consist  of  narratives  of  warfare  which  are 
peculiarly  apt  for  pointing  out  the  results  of  fidelity  and 
apostasy  regarding  the  Law ;  or,  yet  again,  they  form 
brief  supplements  to  the  older  narratives  ^     In  the  case  of 


^  Additions  to  the  narrative  of  Kings. 
I.  Narrative  Poems  :  — 

(a)  Heroes  of  Zihlag  and  Hebron  :  i  Chron.  xii. 
{hi)  Matters  of  worship  and  the  Levifcs :  i  Chron.  xiii, 
XV,  xvi.  xxii-xxix  ;  2  Chron.  iv.  6-9,  vi.  12,  13,  vii. 
I  ff.,  xxix-xxxi,  XXXV.  1-17,  &c. 
(c)  Illustrations  of  Theodicy :  i  Chron.  xi.  6,8,  23,  xviii. 
8,  12  ;  2  Chron.  xiii.  3-21,  xiv.  9-15,  xv.  1-15, 
xvi,  7-10;  xix.  1-3,  XX,  xxi,  11- 17,  xxv.  5-16,  &c. 


INTRODUCTION  9 

many  of  these  additions,  we  have  reason  to  beheve  that 
the  compiler  has  followed  other  early  authorities  with 
considerable  care,  and  that,  although  his  dominant  aim 
is  religious  rather  than  historical,  the  work  has  been  so 
composed  as  to  warrant  our  acceptance  of  its  historical 
accuracy  in  all  its  main  statements. 

It  will  be  subsequently  shown  (§  3)  that  these  pecuhari- 
ties  of  omission  and  addition  form  an  important  clue  to 
the  person  of  the  author  of  Chronicles.  But  it  is  already 
evident  that  he  was  guided  in  the  selection  of  his  material 
by  the  desire  of  showing  the  part  which  Israel's  religion 
had  played  in  the  exigencies  of  the  national  history.  This 
religious  motive  of  the  chronicler  appears  on  almost  every 
page.  Thus  when  he  omits  as  irrelevant  all  record  of  the 
moral  lapses  and  the  family  feuds  which  are  so  insepar- 
able from  a  correct  estimate  of  the  lives  of  David  and 
Solomon,  it  is  evidently  due  to  his  wish  to  avoid  whatever 
was  derogatory  to  the  honour  of  the  theocratic  monarchy. 
Again,  in  the  narratives  of  the  bringing  up  of  the  Ark  to 
Jerusalem,  in  the  priestly  enthronement  of  Joash  and  in 
the  records  of  Hezekiah's  reign,  it  is  solely  the  religious 
aspect  of  events  that  is  made  prominent.  And  every^- 
where  in  the  chronicler's  work  we  find  the  victory  or  failure 
of  the  kings  and  the  prosperity  or  distress  of  the  people 
regarded  as  the  reward  or  punishment  of  their  loyalty  or 
apostasy  in  reference  to  the  Law  of  God.  The  attitude 
which  kings  and  people  assume  towards  Jehovah  is 
invariably  regarded  as  the  prime  factor  in  determining 
the  issue  of  events,  and  this  attitude  is  always  judged 
from  the  standpoint  of  the  Levitic  institutions.     It  thus 


II.  Explanatory  inseriions  : — 

(rt)  On  Ritual :    i  Chron.  xv.  27*,  28*^;  2  Chron.  v.  11'*- 

13%  vi.  13,  vii.  6,  viii.  13-15,  xxiii.  6,  8",  13,  18, 

19,  xxxiv.  9,  12,  13,  &c. 
(6)  Moral  reflections:    1  Chron.   xxi.  6 ;    2  Chron.  viii. 

11^,  xii.  12,  xviii.  si'',  xxii.  3^,  4^,  xxv.  27*,  xxvi. 

21,  23,  xxvii.  6,  xxxiii.  23. 


lo  I   AND   II   CHRONICLES 

appears  that  the  deliberate  aim  of  the  author  was  to  instil 
in  the  hearts  of  his  readers  a  loyalty  to  Jehovah  and  a 
delight  in  His  worship,  the  validity  and  urgency  of  which, 
to  him,  found  their  clearest  vindication  in  the  course  of 
Hebrew  history. 


§  3.    Authorship  and  Date. 

The  Book  of  Chronicles  is  an  anonymous  work.  Tal- 
mudic  tradition  ascribes  it  to  Ezra,  but  this  is  certainly 
incorrect;  and  the  name  of  the  author  must  for  ever 
remain  unknown.  Yet  it  is  possible  from  internal  evidence 
to  learn  much  concerning  the  position  of  the  writer  and 
the  date  of  the  composition  of  his  work. 

The  prominence  which  the  chronicler  gives  to  all 
matters  of  the  history  and  organization  of  the  Levitic 
priesthood  and  the  importance  which  he  attaches  to 
everything  connected  with  the  national  sanctuary  and 
religion  make  it  virtually  indubitable  that  he  was  himself 
a  member  of  the  Levitic  community.  No  Jewish  layman 
could  have  written  such  an  historical  work,  betraying,  as 
it  does,  the  stamp  of  the  Levitic  mind  and  of  priestly 
sympathies  on  every  page.  It  takes  a  Levite  to  read  the 
history  of  his  people  from  the  exclusively  Levitic  stand- 
point. Our  author,  then,  was  a  Levite ;  but  it  is  highly 
probable  that  he  was  not  an  ordinary  priestly  Levite.  The 
frequency  of  his  references  to  the  service  of  praise  in  the 
Temple  makes  it  almost  certain  that  he  must  have  been 
a  member  of  the  Temple  choir  or  orchestra.  A  devotee 
to  his  music,  an  accomplished  statistician,  and  an  en- 
thusiast for  the  ideals  of  his  order,  he  may  well  be 
compared  to  some  monkish  historian  of  the  Middle  Ages, 
viewing  life  through  the  tinted  windows  of  the  cloister  and 
fired  with  the  ambition  to  turn  to  account  the  lessons  of 
the  past  as  a  means  to  lead  men  to  God.  But  this 
musician  of  the  Levitic  guilds  was  also  a  scholar  with  a 


INTRODUCTION  ii 

predilection  for  historical  studies,  whose  delight  it  was  to 
scan  the  treasured  annals  of  his  country's  more  glorious 
past  until  the  heroes  of  other  days  lived  anew.  His  one 
disqualification  for  the  work  of  an  historian  was  the 
absoluteness  of  his  devotion  to  the  Levitic  ideals,  with  the 
consequent  tendency  to  read  back  the  conditions  of  his 
own  day  into  the  remote  past  and  to  judge  an  earlier  age 
as  though  its  standards  and  attainments  were  identical 
with  his  own.  It  is,  of  course,  difficult  to  picture  the 
individual  who  brought  the  Chronicles  into  their  final  form, 
seeing  that  personal  traits  are  so  few ;  but  he  was 
undoubtedly  a  man  of  a  genuinely  religious  nature  to 
whom  the  law  of  his  God,  as  he  knew  it,  was  the  standard 
of  all  duty  and  the  guide  into  all  blessedness. 

As  to  the  date  of  composition  of  Chronicles  we  are  able 
to  speak  with  some  considerable  degree  of  certitude. 
The  prevalent  tone  of  the  work  is  sufficient  to  indicate  at 
the  outset  that  it  is  a  much  later  work  than  the  more 
correctly  so-called  histories  of  Samuel  and  Kings. 
Great  changes  had  passed  over  the  national  life  and 
thought ;  and  the  age  of  the  Deuteronomist  had  given 
place  to  that  of  the  Priestly  Code.  But  the  nature  and 
contents  of  the  book  itself  afford  a  reliable  guide  to  its 
date. 

We  have  already  seen  that  Chronicles-Ezra-Nehemiah 
originally  constituted  a  single  work  and  must  be  attributed 
as  a  complete  whole  to  the  pen  of  one  author,  the  final 
Levitic  compiler.  Within  this  composite  work  there  are 
three  passages  which  afford  important  clues  to  the  date. 
The  first  of  these  is  the  genealogy  in  i  Chron.  iii.  17-24, 
where  the  names  of  the  descendants  of  Zerubbabel  are 
given  down  to  the  sixth  generation  {7'ide  m  loco) ;  but 
Zerubbabel  was  one  of  the  leaders  of  the  exiles  who 
returned  from  Persia  in  538  B.C.,  so  that,  reckoning  thirty 
years  to  a  generation,  we  must  date  the  last-named  of  his 
descendants  as  late  as  350  B.C.  It  is  quite  probable, 
however,  that  the  true  reading  of  this  passage  is  the  one 


12  I   AND   II   CHRONICLES 

preserved  by  the  LXX,  Syriac  and  Vulgate  ^,  according 
to  which  the  genealogy  represents  not  six,  but  eleven, 
generations.  This  reading  would  bring  the  date  down 
almost  to  200  B.C.  With  this  later  date  the  two  other 
passages  alluded  to  (i  Chron.  vi.4-15  and  Neh.xii.  10,  il) 
are  in  harmony.  It  will  be  noticed  by  reference  to  these 
passages  that  Neh.  xii.  10,  11  takes  up  the  list  of  high 
priests  which  i  Chron.  vi.  4-15  left  unfinished.  (The 
connecting  link  between  the  two  is  supplied  by  Neh.  xii. 
26.)  But  here  we  have  the  register  of  names  carried 
down  through  Joshua  to  Jaddua,  who,  as  we  learn  from 
Josephus  {Ant.  xi.  84  f.),  was  high  priest  in  the  days  of 
Alexander  the  Great.  Moreover,  in  i  Chron.  iii  the  line 
of  David  is  traced  down  as  far  as  this  same  period. 
These  positive  indications  of  a  late  date  are  further 
confirmed  by  the  fact  that  (i)  the  ecclesiastical  system 
which  centred  around  the  Priestly  Code  and  which  was 
established  by  Ezra  and  Nehemiah  in  444  B.  C.  had  been 
so  long  recognized  in  the  post-exilic  community  at  Jerusalem 
that  the  chronicler  assumes  its  existence  as  long  ago 
as  the  time  of  David  ;  that  (2)  we  possibly  have,  in 
I  Chron.  xxix.  7,  the  reckoning  of  a  sum  of  money  in 
darics,  which  implies  that  this  late  Persian  coin  had  long 
been  current ;  and  that  (3)  the  use  of  the  title  '  King  of 
Persia'  in  2  Chron.  xxxvi,  22,  in  place  of  the  customary 
early  title  *  the  Great  King,'  implies  that  the  days  of  the 
Persian  supremacy  were  already  past. 

The  earliest  date,  then,  which  can  be  assigned  to  the 
Chronicles  must  be  about  300  B.  C. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  is  absolutely  no  trace  of 
the  magnificent  struggle  of  the  Maccabees  which  dis- 
tinguished the  Jewish  history  of  the  second  pre-Christian 
century  and  revolutionized  the  religious  conditions  of  the 

^  This  meaning  has  been  obtained  by  reading*  "133  for  '':n  four 
times  in  v.  21,  and  also  at  the  end  of  the  verse  before  the  "';2"^ 
of  v.  22, 


INTRODUCTION  13 

land.  Consequently  we  are  able,  with  comparative 
certainty,  to  date  the  compilation  of  Chronicles  between 
300  and  250  B.  c,  and  to  attribute  it  to  the  piety  and  industry 
of  a  Levitical  singer  of  the  second  Temple. 

§  4.  Sources  of  Chronicles. 
It  is  the  practice  of  the  chronicler  constantly  to  cite  the 
authorities  from  which  he  draws  the  information  he  is 
presenting,  or  to  refer  his  readers  to  extant  works  where 
they  may  find  a  corroboration  or  supplement  of  the  events 
he  is  narrating.  Such  references  to  his  sources  are 
almost  always  found  at  the  conclusion  of  the  reign  of  a 
king.  And,  in  all,  there  are  citations  of  twelve  such 
sources  which  demand  our  consideration.  These  may  be 
shown  at  a  glance  thus : — 

(1)  A  Book  of  the  Kings  of  Israel  and  Judah  (2  Chron. 
xxvii.  7,  XXXV.  27,  xxxvi.  8). 

(2)  A  Book  of  the  Kings  of  Judah  and  Israel  (2  Chron. 
xvi.  1 1 ,  XXV.  26,  xxviii.  26,  xxxii.  32). 

(3)  A  Book  of  the  Kings  of  Israel  (2  Chron.  xxiv.  27). 

(4)  A  Midrash  of  the  Book  of  Kings  (2  Chron.  xxiv.  27). 
/(5)  A  History  of  the  Prophets  Samuel,  Nathan,  and 

Gad  (i  Chron.  xxix.  29). 

(6)  A   History   of  the   Prophets   Nathan,   Ahijah   the 

Shilonite,  and  Iddo  (2  Chron.  ix.  29). 

(7)  A   History  of  the  Prophets   Shemaiah  and  Iddo 

(i  Chron.  xii.  15). 

(8)  A  Midrash  of  the  Prophet  Iddo  (2  Chron.  xiii.  22). 

(9)  A  History  of  the  Prophet  Jehu  (2  Chron.  xx.  24). 

(10)  Isaiah's  History  of  Uzziah  (2  Chron.  xxvi.  22). 

(l  i)  A  History  of  the  Prophet  Isaiah  (2  Chron.  xxxii.  32). 

(12)  A  History  of  the  Prophet  of  Manasseh's  day 
(2  Chron.  xxxiii.  19). 

Critical  opinions  have  long  been  at  variance  as  to  what 
these  sources  precisely  were.  It  seems  clear,  however, 
that  they  fall  into  two  main  groups,  nos.  1-4  and  nos.  5-12, 
the  first  group  being  historical  and  the  second  prophetic. 


14  I    AND    II    CHRONICLES 

But,  while  some  critics  (e.g.  Keil)  have  held  that  all  these 
represented  sources  available  to  the  chronicler,  others  have 
held  that  he  had  recourse  to  no  works  which  are  not 
available  to  us  to-day.  The  conclusions  which  com- 
mend themselves  most  forcibly  to  the  present  writer, 
however,  are  those  reached  by  Kittel.  As  to  the  first 
group  (nos.  1-4),  we  hold  that  nos.  1-3  stand  for  one  and 
the  same  work,  a  History  of  the  Kings,  which,  however, 
is  not  our  canonical  Book  of  Kings,  in  that  it  differs 
therefrom  in  numerous  ways,  but  was  itself  somewhat 
of  the  nature  of  a  midrash  (or  homily)  based  upon 
our  canonical  Kings.  No.  4  we  take  to  be  another 
midrash  upon  the  Kings,  distinct  from  the  great  work, 
nos.  1-3,  and  embodying  further  material. 

As  to  the  second  group,  we  conclude,  from  numerous 
indications,  that  all  the  titles,  except  8  and  11,  refer  to  one 
and  the  same  work ;  and,  further,  we  conclude  that  they 
merely  denote  sections  of  the  great  historical  work,  '  The 
Book  of  the  Kings.'  This  is  supported  by  the  fact 
that  the  chronicler  never  cites  the  authority  of  both 
'  The  Book  of  the  Kings '  and  the  '  Word '  &c.  of  a  prophet 
for  any  one  reign,  whereas  he  refers  to  one  or  the  other  for 
all  the  kings  except  three.  It  was,  moreover,  the  prevalent 
Jewish  custom  to  indicate  sections  of  the  written  history  by 
the  names  of  the  prophets  living  at  the  time  referred  to,  as 
when,  for  example,  our  Lord  asked,  '  Have  ye  not  read 
in  the  book  of  Moses,  in  the  place  concerning  the  Bush  ? ' 
(Mark  xii.  26),  or  when  St.  Paul  wrote,  'Wot  ye  not  what 
the  scripture  saith  in  Elijah?'  (Rom.  xi.  2,  R.V.  marg.). 
In  addition  to  this  we  discover  that  in  two  cases  it  is 
expressly  stated  that  these  prophetic  narratives  form  part 
of  the  larger  historical  work.  Thus,  we  read  '  The  rest 
of  the  acts  of  Jehoshaphat,  first  and  last,  behold,  they  are 
written  in  the  history  of  Jehu  the  son  of  Hanani,  which  is 
inserted  in  the  book  of  the  kings  of  Israel '  (2  Chron.  xx. 
34) ;  and  again, '  The  rest  of  the  acts  of  Hezekiah,  and  his 
good  deeds,  behold,  they  are  written  in  the  vision  of  Isaiah 


INTRODUCTION  15 

the  prophet  the  son  of  Amoz,  in  the  book  of  the  kings  of 
Judah  and  Israel'  (2  Chron.  xxxii.  32).  Whence  we 
reasonably  conclude  that  in  the  other  instances  also  the 
reference  is  to  the  sections  of  the  '  Book  of  the  Kings,' 
rather  than  to  independent  works.  To  this  conclusion 
there  are,  however,  two  exceptions.  No.  11  was  probably 
identical  with  our  Isaiah  i-xxxix  ;  and  no.  8,  on  the  analogy 
of  the  relation  of  nos.  5-12  to  nos.  1-3,  may  be  held  to  be 
part  of  no.  4. 

Thus  we  reduce  our  author's  main  sources  to  three 
distinct  works:  (i)  the  great  history  of  the  Kings;  (2) 
a  midrash  thereof;  and  (3)  our  Isaiah  i-xxxix. 

Undoubtedly  there  is  a  certain  close  connexion  between 
our  canonical  Books  of  Kings  and  Chronicles  in  the  matter 
of  sources.  And  regarding  this  connexion  it  is  noteworthy 
that  each  reference  in  the  canonical  Chronicles  to  the  Book 
of  the  Kings  of  Israel  and  Judah  is  paralleled  by  a  reference 
in  the  canonical  Kings  to  the  Book  of  the  Chronicles  of  the 
Kings  of  Judah.  Moreover,  in  the  cases  of  the  reigns  of 
Ahaziah,  Athaliah  and  Amon,  where  our  Chronicles  quotes 
no  authority  at  all,  our  Kings  also  omits  to  give  any  refer- 
ence. It  is  quite  evident  that  the  references  in  Kings  are 
not  to  our  canonical  Chronicles,  for  it  was  only  written 
centuries  later.  And  it  is  equally  clear  that  Chronicles 
does  not  allude  to  the  canonical  Kings,  for  information 
for  which  we  are  referred  to  the  '  Book  of  the  Kings '  is  not 
found  to  exist  in  the  canonical  Kings  (cf.  2  Chron.  xxvii. 
7).  It  appears,  then,  that  the  canonical  Kings  sought  its 
material  from  two  distinct  sources,  *  the  Chronicles  of  the 
Kings  of  Israel '  for  Israel  and '  the  Chronicles  of  the  Kings 
of  Judah '  for  Judah  :  whereas  the  chronicler  obtained  his 
material  for  the  history  of  the  Judaean  kings  from  a 
combination  of  these  two  annals  entitled  '  the  Book  of  the 
Kings  of  Israel  and  Judah.'  The  theory  that  the  chronicler 
went  back  to  the  original  sources  of  the  canonical  Kings 
seems  to  be  utterly  precluded  by  the  fact  that  many 
passages  of  our  Chronicles,  where  they  are  identical  with 


i6  I   AND   II   CHRONICLES 

our  Kings,  actually  include  those  brief  notes  upon  the 
characters  of  the  monarch  which  bear  every  mark  of  being 
due  to  the  final  redactor  of  Kings  rather  than  being  derived 
from  the  originals  ^  But  as  we  have  seen  reason  to  beheve 
that  our  chronicler  derived  his  material  from  a  great 
history  of  the  Kings,  which  contained  matter  not  found  in 
our  Kings,  we  are  shut  up  to  the  conclusion  that  this  great 
work  was  in  a  sense  the  common  source  of  both  our 
canonical  books,  but  that  it  had  been  altered  by  revision 
and  the  incorporation  of  new  material  between  the  dates 
of  the  composition  of  our  canonical  books. 

Hence  when  the  chronicler  cites  authorities  it  is  with 
the  intention  of  referring  his  readers  to  a  larger  extant 
work,  wherein  they  would  not  only  find  the  material  con- 
tained in  the  canonical  Kings  but  also  confirmation  of  the 
numerous  additions  which  he  had  made  thereto  in  accord 
with  the  temper  and  traditions  of  his  day. 

Much  of  the  subject-matter  of  our  Chronicles  is  evidently 
original,  for  it  is  cast  in  that  late  Hebrew  which  is  so  typical 
of  the  age  to  which  we  have  assigned  the  book.  And  it  is 
probable  that  this  material  was  worked  in  both  from  late 
ecclesiastical  records  and  from  contemporary,  unwritten 
versions  of  his  country's  history.  While,  therefore,  attempts 
have  been  made  to  distinguish  various  Levitic  precursors 
of  the  chronicler,  it  seems  preferable  to  follow  Dr.  Driver 
in  attributing  the  new  matter  mainly  to  the  chronicler 
himself.  Moreover,  it  is  difficult  to  distinguish  separate 
and  successive  redactors  in  endeavouring  to  indicate  the 
few  passages  which  seem  to  be  later  insertions,  although 
the  attempt  has  been  made  to  indicate  two  such  redactors. 

In  the  treatment  of  the  text,  I  have  followed  the  course 
pursued  by  Kittel,  indicating  matter  due  to  the  chronicler 
himself,  to  earlier  historic  sources,  and  to  later  redactions. 
I  have  further  discriminated  between  the  historical  matter 


*  Cf.  2  Chron.xx.  32^  i  Kings  xxii.  43  ;  2  Chron.  xxiv.  2  = 
2  Kings  xii.  3  ;  2  Chron.  xxviii.  1-4  =  2  Kings  xiv.  2,  5,  &c. 


INTRODUCTION  17 

derived  from  sources  extant  and  non-extant.     The  follow- 
ing lettering  is  employed  in  the  text : — 

Ch.   =  material  due  to  the  chronicler. 

Ch.2  =  material  almost  wholly  rewritten  from  historical 
material. 

H      =  material  found  also  in  extant  O.  T.  works. 

H-     =  material  due  to  non-extant  historical  works. 

R      =  work  of  late  redactor. 

E-  =  work  of  latest  redactor. 
The  process  by  which  the  Levitical  chronicler  of  the 
third  century  B.C.  completes  his  patchwork  from  his  earlier 
sources,  by  moralizing,  correcting,  supplementing,  and 
adapting,  is  an  indication  of  the  different  spirit  of  his 
day  from  that  of  the  Deuteronomist  who  compiled  the 
canonical  Kings.  His  completed  work,  based  upon 
written  history,  midrash,  and  ecclesiastical  tradition,  in- 
corporates all  that  he  held  most  worthy  of  preservation  in 
the  literature  that  dealt  with  the  Temple,  its  historj',  its 
liturgy,  and  its  ritual '. 

§  5.    Discrepancies  due  to  Compilation. 

A  careful  comparison  of  our  Chronicles  with  the  Eook 
of  Kings  reveals  the  presence  of  numerous  intentional 
changes  and  a  large  number  of  discrepancies.  These 
discrepancies  occur  in  regard  to  the  ecclesiastical  institu- 
tions in  early  Israel,  in  regard  to  the  divine  blessing  or 

^  Dr.  Driver  gives  the  following  approximate  relationship 
between  Kings  and  Chronicles  (cp.Inifod.  to  Lit  of  the  O.  T.): 
<i  I.  The  Book  of  the  Chronicles  of  the  Kings  of  Israel. 
\  2.  The  Book  of  the  Chronicles  of  the  Kings  of  Judah. 

\ 

I  I 

The  canonical  '  The  Book  of  the  Kings 

Book  of  Kings.  of  Israel  and  Judah.' 

I .1 

The  canonical  Book  of  Chronicles. 


18  I   AND   II   CHRONICLES 

punishment  which  followed  specific  acts  of  the  kings,  and 
in  regard  to  statistics.  Each  of  these  deserves  special 
attention. 

I.  Reading  the  past  from  the  religious  standpoint  of  his 
own  day,  the  chronicler  displayed  almost  no  conception  of 
the  progressive  character  of  revelation  or  of  the  gradual 
development  of  ecclesiastical  institutions.  Whereas  a  true 
historian  would  have  sought  to  transplant  himself  into  the 
spirit  and  environment  of  the  past,  our  compiler  wrote  as 
though  all  things  had  always  been  precisely  as  he  saw 
them  ;  and  when  he  supplemented  earlier  records  he  often 
did  so  from  the  institutions  of  his  own  age.  The  chronicler 
seems  never  to  have  realized  that  conduct  which  he  felt 
bound  to  condemn  might  have  been  sanctioned  in  the 
dimmer  light  of  an  earlier  day.  He,  therefore,  freely  altered 
all  that  seemed  to  be  in  conflict  with  his  own  religious 
ideals,  and  sought  to  harmonize  the  records  of  the  ecclesi- 
astical system  existing  under  the  earlier  kings  with  that 
which  prevailed  under  the  Persian  satraps.  Hence  dis- 
crepancies were  bound  to  arise,  (a)  In  regard  to  public 
worship,  we  have  a  case  in  point  in  the  statements 
concerning  the  High  Places.  The  writer  of  Kings  states 
emphatically  that  neither  Asa  nor  Jehoshaphat  removed 
the  High  Places  (cf.  i  Kings  xv.  14,  xxii.  43),  whereas  the 
chronicler  states  just  as  emphatically  that,  being  rulers 
who  kept  the  Law,  they  both  removed  the  High  Places 
(cf.  2  Chron.  xiv.  5,  xvii.  6).  (/3)  Many  points  of  difference 
are  presented  in  passages  where  religious  institutions  are 
concerned,  seeing  that  the  chronicler  invariably  seeks  to 
carry  back  the  ecclesiasticism  of  his  age  into  that  of  the 
monarchy.  For  instance,  the  removal  of  the  Ark  to 
Jerusalem  by  David  is  represented  by  the  chronicler  as 
being  entrusted  to  the  Levites  (i  Chron.  xv),  whereas  the 
writer  of  Kings  makes  it  the  mission  of  the  priests 
(i  Kings  viii.  3)  in  obedience  to  Deut.  xxxi.  9.  Similarly  the 
chronicler  cannot  tolerate  the  idea  of  the  Temple  guard 
being  composed  of  Carian  mercenaries  (2   Kings  xi.  4, 


J 


INTRODUCTION  19 

R.V.),  and  consequently  replaces  them  by  Levites  (2  Chron. 
xxiii).  Other  instances  of  changes  due  to  religious  pre- 
suppositions will  be  pointed  out  in  the  notes. 

2.  The  second  class  of  discrepancies  is  caused  by  the 
chronicler's  practice  of  endeavouring  to  show  that  divine 
retribution  followed  immediately  upon  wrong-doing,  where- 
as the  writer  of  Kings,  who  held  no  such  theory  of 
immediate  retribution,  often  speaks  of  a  considerable 
interval  existing.  One  may  instance  a  few  cases.  The 
writer  of  Kings  (l  Kings  xxii.  48)  represents  the  merchant 
fleet  which  was  wrecked  at  Ezion-geber  as  being  the 
sole  property  of  the  good  king  Jehoshaphat ;  but  the 
chronicler,  seeking  for  an  immediate  cause  of  so  evident 
a  sign  of  divine  displeasure,  states  that  the  apostate  king 
of  Israel  was  a  partner  in  the  wrecked  ships  (2  Chron.  xx. 
35).  Again,  in  2  Kings  iii  we  read  that  Jehoshaphat  was 
successful  in  a  campaign  in  which  he  was  allied  with  the 
apostate  Ahab  against  Moab  ;  but,  as  such  a  result  would 
be  contrary  to  all  his  theories,  the  chronicler  omits 
this  war  entirely  and  replaces  it  by  a  campaign  which 
Jehoshaphat  wages  successfully,  not  through  arms,  but  by 
the  aid  of  the  Levites,  against  Moab,  Ammon  and  Edom. 
And,  yet  again,  the  calamities  which  befell  the  nation 
under  Rehoboam,  Asa,  Jehoash,  Amaziah,  Azariah,  and 
Josiah  were  all  accounted  for  in  Chronicles  by  the  insertion 
of  accounts  of  sin  or  apostasy  of  which  the  author  of  Kings 
evidently  knew  nothing;  whereas, conversely, the  length  of 
the  reign  of  Manasseh,  whom  the  earlier  historian  paints  in 
darkest  details,  is  accounted  for  on  the  chronicler's  part  by 
the  assertion  that  he  became  a  late  penitent ^  Such  in- 
stances make  it  abundantly  evident  that  the  chronicler  was 
so  intent  upon  pointing  out  the  errors  or  the  piety  of  the 
early  kings  of  Judah,  so  eager  to  teach  moral  and  religious 
truths,  that  he  fell  into  the  common  fault  of  reading  history 


^  2  Chron.  xii.  2-8,  xvi.  7-10,  xxiv.  23,  xxv.  14-16,  xxvi. 
i6-io,  XXXV.  21,  xxxvi.  15. 

C    2 


20  I   AND   II   CHRONICLES 

in  a  light  which  would  scarcely  be  possible  to  the  strict 
historian. 

3.  The  third  class  of  discrepancies  arises  in  statistics. 
Here  the  chronicler's  tendency  is  to  overestimate  the 
grandeur  of  his  country's  past.  Centuries  had  elapsed  since 
the  author  of  Kings  wrote,  and  later  ages  had  learned  to 
view  through  magnifying-glasses  the  glory  of  the  kingdom 
in  the  days  of  its  prosperity.  As  evident  exaggerations  one 
may  refer  to  i  Chron.  xxii.  24  (cf.  i  Kings  x.  24) ;  2  Chron. 
xiii.  3,  17,  xiv.  8,  9,  xvii.  14-19,  xxvi.  13,  xxviii.  6,  8.  For 
statistical  discrepancies  one  may  compare  i  Chron.  xviii. 
4,  xxi.  5  and  xxi.  25  with  2  Sam.  viii.  4,  xxiv.  9  and  xxiv. 
24,  respectively. 

To  attribute  such  discrepancies  to  a  wilful  mis- 
representation on  the  part  of  the  chronicler  would  be 
manifestly  unjust.  He  wrote  in  accord  with  conceptions 
prevalent  in  his  age  and  committed  to  writing  the 
contemporary  interpretations  of  earlier  history.  When 
current  traditions  conflicted  with  the  earlier  records  it  is 
evident  that  our  author  regarded  them  as  more  worthy  of 
acceptance  than  the  statements  which  are  found  in  Kings. 
It  is  highly  probable  that  he  already  found  the  version  he 
preferred  recorded  in  the  main  source  of  his  material,  *  The 
Book  of  the  Kings  of  Israel  and  Judah.'  And  in  any  case 
his  religious  view  of  history  was  sufificient  justification 
for  him  to  stress  the  moral  aspect  at  every  point. 

A  word  must  be  said  here  regarding  the  chronicler's 
doublets.  On  several  occasions  we  meet  with  duplicate 
genealogies  and  duplicate  narratives.  In  all  such  cases 
the  chronicler  had  probably  derived  them  from  distinct 
and  divergent  sources,  and,  with  an  historian's  insight,  pre- 
ferred to  place  them  both  on  record  rather  than  suppress 
one  of  them  or  attempt  a  harmony.  There  is  always  a 
possibility  that  additions,  including  some  of  these  dupli- 
cates, may  be  due  to  later  redactors  ;  yet  the  late  date  at 
which  Chronicles  was  compiled  makes  it  practically  certain 
that  the  work  has  undergone  no  serious  redaction,  but  has 


INTRODUCTION  21 

come  down  to  us  in  very  much  the  same  form  in  which 
it  left  the  hand  of  the  Levitic  author  of  the  third  pre- 
Christian  century. 

§  6.    The  Chronicler  as  an  Historian 

In  all  problems  relating  to  the  Books  of  Kings  and 
Chronicles  it  is  essential  to  keep  in  mind  the  fact  that 
some  three  centuries  had  elapsed  between  the  dates  of 
their  composition.  The  earlier  history  may  be  dated 
about  550  B.C.  and  the  later  possibly  as  late  as  250  B.C. 

It  is  scarcely  possible  to  overstate  the  changes  which 
had  taken  place  in  the  life  of  the  Jewish  community  during 
these  three  centuries.  For  the  first  two  centuries  after  the 
Exile  Judaea  had  ranked  as  a  minor  province  of  the  Persian 
empire  ;  and,  when  Alexander  the  Great  conquered  Persia 
in  333  B.C.,  the  Jews  offered  only  a  feeble  resistance  to  his 
authority  and  thereafter  continued  to  hold  the  same  rela- 
tions with  the  Macedonian  rulers  as  with  their  Persian 
predecessors.  But  during  this  period  there  had  occurred 
events  of  such  momentous  import  as  the  return  from  the 
Exile  under  Zenibbabel  and  Joshua  in  536  B.C.,  the 
building  of  the  second  Temple,  536-520  B.C.,  and  the 
establishment  of  the  Deuteronomic  regime  under  Ezra 
and  Nehemiah  in  444  B.C.  It  was  in  401  B.C.,  moreover, 
that  Xenophon  and  his  '  Ten  Thousand  *  had  carried  the 
Grecian  arms  into  the  heart  of  the  Persian  empire  ;  and 
when  that  empire  began  to  show  signs  of  decay,  a  fierce 
revolt,  sternly  repressed,  had  broken  out  in  Judaea  during 
the  year  350  B.  c.  Meantime  Judaean  life  had  been  stirred 
by  the  mission  of  some  of  its  greatest  prophets,  and  Haggai, 
Zechariah,  Malachi  and  Joel  had  successively  uttered  their 
messages  to  the  people.  The  Pentateuch,  moreover,  had 
been  put  into  its  present  form,  the  works  of  the  '  Former 
Prophets'  collected,  and  the  great  Song-Book  of  the 
Second  Temple  compiled. 

The  magnitude  of  such  events  was  sufficient  to  render 
the  national  life  and  thought  a  very  different  thing  from 


22  I   AND   II   CHRONICLES 

what  it  was  in  the  days  of  the  Hebrew  monarchy.  Not 
only  was  the  reign  of  the  latest  Jewish  king  as  remote 
from  the  chronicler's  day  as  the  reign  of  Edward  VI  is 
from  ourselves,  but  the  intellectual  and  moral  horizon  of 
the  people  had  completely  changed.  The  influence  of 
Babylon  and  its  Persian  rulers,  and,  later  on,  the  influence 
of  the  Grecian  world,  had  made  a  remarkable  impression 
upon  the  Jewish  communities.  Even  the  language  had 
changed,  as  the  vernacular  Aramaic  supplanted  the  an- 
cient Hebrew  speech.  But  most  important  of  all  for  our 
present  purpose  is  the  fact  that  the  law  as  established  by 
Ezra  and  Nehemiah  had  entirely  remoulded  the  religious 
thought  and  the  religious  institutions  of  the  people.  The 
Hebrew  monarchy  had  been  replaced  by  an  order  of  things 
so  different  that  the  conditions  of  the  national  past  could 
no  longer  be  correctly  appreciated.  The  priestly  system  had 
been  installed  where  once  stood  the  theocratic  monarchy. 
Ecclesiasticism  dominated  the  whole  life  of  the  community. 

How  natural,  then,  that  a  devout  scholar  of  the  all- 
powerful  Levitical  community  should  read  the  early 
history  of  his  people,  as  penned  in  the  days  of  the  Exile, 
in  an  unsympathetic  way  and  should  imagine  it  to  be  full 
of  primitive  ideas  and  defective  statements !  And  how 
natural  that  he  should  determine  to  rewrite  the  story  of 
his  country  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  civilization  and 
the  church  of  his  day,  omitting  all  irrelevant  subjects  and 
merely  seeking  to  make  the  past,  with  God's  relation  to 
history,  intelligible  to  his  contemporaries !  We  have 
already  seen  him  at  his  work  and  noted  his  sources  and 
manner  of  compilation.  We  are  now  compelled  to  look 
at  his  finished  work  and  inquire  whether  it  is  genuine 
history  and  what  is  its  religious  value. 

In  facing  such  questions,  one  must  admit  at  the  outset 
that  it  is  perfectly  credible  that,  in  the  course  of  a  progres- 
sive historical  revelation,  God  should  raise  up  successive 
religious  thinkers  who  would  view  the  divine  intent  in 
history  from  standpoints  varying  according  to  the  moral 


INTRODUCTION  23 

attainments  of  the  age  in  which  they  lived.  It  would 
accord  neither  with  human  intelligence  nor  with  the 
historical  character  of  divine  revelation  to  presuppose  that 
the  numerous  independent  estimates  of  God's  dealings  with 
men  must  display  an  absolute  uniformity  and  an  unvary- 
ing richness  of  insight.  The  one  Spirit  who  guided  the 
unfolding  of  the  divine  purpose  through  many  channels 
has  given  a  fulness  to  our  conception  of  the  truth  which 
only  diversity  could  impart. 

Hence  we  expect  that  the  estimate  of  Hebrew  history 
formed  prior  to  the  Exile  will  differ  from  the  estimate 
formed  after  it.  And,  similarly,  the  later  historian  who 
traced  a  divine  purpose  in  the  events  of  the  Captivity 
would  be  almost  compelled  to  rewrite  the  early  history  of 
his  people  less  as  history  than  as  what  is  known  as  religious 
pragmatism  (i.e.  as  the  interpretation  of  God's  ways  in 
history).  When  we  look  at  the  Book  of  Samuel  we  dis- 
cover that  it  was  originally  compiled  from  the  standpoint 
of  the  Deuteronomic  legislation.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
compiler  of  the  Book  of  Kings,  as  we  now  have  it,  while 
himself  also  a  Deuteronomist,  evidently  wrote  in  that  spirit 
of  the  first  exilic  prophets  which  is  so  eloquently  expressed 
by  Zechariah  when  he  asks :  'Your  fathers,  where  are  they  ? 
and  the  prophets,  do  they  live  for  ever?  But  my  words  and 
my  statutes,  which  I  commanded  my  servants  the  pro- 
phets, did  they  not  overtake  your  fathers  ?'  (Zech.  i.  5,  6). 
In  Kings,  and  subsequently  in  Chronicles,  the  dominant 
interest  of  the  compilers  is  religious,  and  a  firm  belief  in 
the  principle  of  divine  retribution  underlies  their  reading 
of  history.  Evidently,  then,  we  can  only  do  justice  to  the 
chronicler  by  first  understanding  and  then  for  the  moment 
assuming  his  particular  religious  attitude  towards  the 
history  of  his  race. 

We  face  the  chronicler's  work  remembering  that 
Jerusalem  had  ceased  to  be  the  head  of  an  independent 
state  and  had  become  merely  '  a  municipality  governed  by 
a  church.'     In  so  far  as  the  Jewish  people  survived  as  a 


24  I   AND    II    CHRONICLES 

nation  at  all,  they  lived  on  the  recollections  of  the  past. 
For  the  member  of  the  post-exilic  community  everything 
centred  in  the  Temple-service  and  the  written  law.  And 
in  this  ecclesiastical  system  the  main  element  was  the 
Levitic  priesthood.  But  the  chronicler  reveals  the  fact 
that  he  was  a  Levite  and  a  Temple-musician,  whose  mind 
was  saturated  with  the  Levitic  spirit.  And  it  would  be 
manifestly  impossible  for  such  a  man  to  read  the  earlier 
histories  of  Samuel  and  Kings  without  feeling  much  in 
them  was  defective  and  much  absolutely  misleading. 
The  difference  of  view  does  not  necessarily  imply  that  the 
later  estimate  of  events  would  be  the  more  accurate 
one,  but  merely  that  it  would  be  coloured  by  later 
religious  conceptions.  And  of  necessity  that  would 
happen  which  actually  has  happened.  The  chronicler 
would  feel  compelled  to  omit  or  explain  everything  in  the 
earlier  histories  that  conflicted  with  the  completed  Penta- 
teuch, which  he  possessed  and  his  literary  precursors  did 
not ;  and  he  would  feel  resistlessly  impelled  to  give  to  the 
Temple  and  its  ministrants  the  importance  which,  from 
the  viewpoint  of  his  own  age,  he  felt  they  must  have 
possessed  in  earlier  ages.  To  him  it  would  seem  evident 
that  the  divine  intent  had  been  unfolded  through  the 
liouse  of  David  alone,  and  he  would  consequently  ignore 
the  northern  kingdom  and  omit  all  matters  which  seemed 
foreign  to  the  purpose  of  God  as  revealed  by  the  events 
of  the  Exile  and  Restoration.  This  simply  means  that 
the  chronicler  was  an  eclectic  writer  whose  purpose  it 
was  to  write  of  the  religious  significance  of  history  rather 
than  to  write  the  history,  as  such,  of  his  people.  He 
realized  that  there  was  a  crying  need  for  such  a  work  as 
this  to  meet  the  temper  of  his  day,  and,  in  endeavouring  to 
supply  the  want,  his  determination  to  write  history  was 
practically  lost  in  his  attempt  to  convey  the  moral  lessons 
of  the  past.  Although  he  bases  his  work  upon  earlier 
documents,  he  seems  on  almost  every  page  to  interject 
paragraphs   which  convey  the  religious  interpretation  of 


INTRODUCTION  25 

events.  In  effect  he  cries  :  '  Do  you  not  see  that  God  was 
in  all  this,  and  that  such  and  such  causes  and  consequences 
must  have  been  involved  ! ' 

In  a  sense  very  much  of  this  is  equally  true  of  the 
compiler  of  Kings,  in  that  he  too  worked  up  the  historical 
material  at  his  disposal  as  a  pragmatist.  But  the 
Deuteronomic  author  of  Kings  seems  to  have  had  a  far 
higher  regard  for  historical  accuracy  than  had  the  Levitic 
pragmatist  who  compiled  the  Chronicles ;  and  when  events 
failed  at  once  to  exemplify  divine  retribution  the  author 
of  Kings  simply  stated  the  facts  and  left  the  future  to 
vindicate  the  right,  whereas  the  chronicler  felt  unable  to 
leave  any  statement  in  so  bare  and  uncommented  a  form. 

But  if  we  inquire  of  the  work  of  the  chronicler  whether 
this  is  history  in  the  modern  sense,  it  must  be  frankly 
admitted  that  it  does  not  accord  with  all  the  canons  of 
genuine  historical  writings.  Indeed,  it  is  scarcely  too  much 
to  say  that  where  the  author  of  Kings  gives  us  history  the 
author  of  Chronicles  often  gives  us  merely  'midrash.'  And 
the  chronicler's  interpretation  of  the  past  has  even  been 
described  by  a  modern  critic  as  merely  '  teaching  by 
anachronism.'  Yet  he  has  done  more  than  write  a  work 
in  harmony  with  the  spirit  of  Hebrew  midrash ;  he  has 
actually  made  a  compilation  from  the  midrash  of  earlier 
writers.  Consequently,  where  there  are  divergences  from 
the  earlier  records  in  statements  of  fact,  the  weight  of 
authority  lies  invariably  with  the  'Former  Prophets'  rather 
than  with  the  'Latter  Prophets.'  At  the  same  time  it  must 
be  pointed  out  that  the  discrepancies  between  Chronicles 
and  the  earlier  histories  have  been  vastly  overstated,  and 
that  the  majority  of  critics  are  now  prepared  to  concede 
the  historical  accuracy  of  the  greater  part  of  the  work  of  the 
chronicler.  Many  illustrations  of  its  reliability  might  be 
given.  For  instance,  we  find  in  the  genealogies  and 
statistics  many  proofs  that  the  chronicler  sought  honestly 
and  laboriously  to  present  the  matter  in  hand  with  all 
the  critical  accuracy  possible  in  the  light  of  his  day.    We 


26  I   AND    II    CHRONICLES 

are  not  warranted,  therefore,  in  treating  his  records  with 
the  contempt  displayed  by  so  many  critics  ;  and  it  must  be 
admitted  that  the  author's  compilations  of  names  and  figures 
assist  us  materially  in  depicting  the  post-exilic  community. 

Moreover,  the  chronicler  rendered  an  invaluable  service 
to  his  generation  by  presenting  history  in  a,  to  them, 
modern  light ;  for  all  that  he  wrote  was,  so  far  as  contem- 
porary learning  rendered  it  possible,  genuine  history  on 
the  whole.  The  care  shown  in  the  genealogical  records 
reveals  a  mind  in  which  a  great  reverence  for  the  past 
unites  with  an  earnest  appreciation  of  the  religious  ex- 
periences of  the  present.  All  that  he  wrote  was  in 
harmony  with  conceptions  prevalent  amongst  all  Hebrew 
thinkers  of  his  day  ;  and  his  statements  and  figures  were 
as  accurate  as  his  sources  and  environs  enabled  him  to 
make  them.  Hence,  even  to-day,  Chronicles  not  only  has 
a  priceless  religious  value,  but  remains  as  a  reliable  record 
of  the  position  of  religious  thought  in  the  Hebrew  com- 
munity three  centuries  B.C. 

To  the  modern  student  Chronicles  is  an  invaluable 
guide  to  a  correct  and  reverent  criticism  of  the  rest  of  the 
Old  Testament,  and  an  interpreter  of  the  silent  centuries 
which  preceded  the  Maccabees.  It  will  only  hold  its 
correct  place  in  the  student's  regard  when  he  admits  that 
historical  accuracy  weighed  less  in  the  compiler's  purpose 
than  the  desire  to  indicate  how  God  had  wrought  in  other 
days.  Wherefore  we  should  really  study  the  work  as  an 
interpreter  of  Jewish  faith  in  the  ages  when  the  voice  of 
prophecy  was  dying  and  man  had  little  religious  light 
save  the  long-kindled  expectation  of  the  Messiah,  whose 
advent  still  lay  three  centuries  ahead. 

It  will  be  seen,  then,  that  while  we  are  not  disposed  to 
rank  Chronicles  with  pure  history  so  much  as  with  pious 
and  reverent  'midrash,'  we  are  still  as  far  removed  as 
possible  from  the  attitude  of  such  critics  as  de  Wette, 
Stade,  and  Wellhausen  in  their  contemptuous  denial  of  the 
historical  value  of  the  book. 


INTRODUCTION  27 

§  7.    Religious  Position  of  the  Chronicler. 

The  Chronicles  reveal  throughout  the  fact  that  their 
author  was  a  devout  man  and  that  he  had  attained  to 
settled  convictions  concerning  the  divine  government 
of  the  world ;  whence  we  are  able  to  make  certain 
statements  regarding  his  religious  position. 

We  observe  in  his  work  an  added  sense  of  aisje,  over 
and  above  what  is  found  in  Kings,  when  he  deals  with 
holy  things.  This  appears  generally  in  little  things,  such 
as  the  more  frequent  use  of  such  phrases  as  '  the  Ark 
of  God '  for  '  the  Ark  of  Jehovah,'  and  the  addition 
of  significant  words  such  as  '  with  men '  in  the  query 
*  Will  God  in  very  deed  dwell  on  the  earth  ? '  (cf.  2  Chron. 
vi.  18,  and  i  Kings  viii.  27).  Yet  this  sense  of  reverence 
pervades  the  whole  work  in  a  remarkable  degree ;  and  it 
certainly  has  something  to  do  with  the  different  method  of 
representing  the  origin  of  the  Davidic  census. 

Further,  in  the  chronicler's  eyes,  there  is  an  added 
sa7iciity  about  everything  connected  with  the  Temple  and 
the  organization  of  the  national  worship.  The  High 
Places  are  viewed  with  stronger  disapproval  than  ever. 
The  sacredness  of  the  shrine  where  Jehovah  had  mani- 
fested Himself  is  shown  by  the  title  *  Holy  of  Holies.' 
The  utmost  care  is  given  to  the  description  of  all  matters 
of  ritual.  And  yet  the  chronicler  is  no  mere  ritualist ; 
for  there  are  times  when  he  admits  that  the  attitude 
of  the  heart  stands  for  more  than  does  the  legitimacy  of 
the  method  of  worship  (cf.  2  Chron.  xxx.  18). 

But  the  outstanding  fact  about  the  chronicler  is  that  he 
takes  a  7'eligious  ineiv  of  Jiistojy.  He  views  the  same 
facts  with  the  author  of  Kings,  but  he  always  endeavours 
to  go  behind  the  scenes  and  understand  the  divine 
7'aiio7iale  of  events.  He  has,  too,  a  very  definite  concep- 
tion of  the  inerrancy  of  Jehovah's  justice  and  the 
infallibility  of  His  law  of  retribution.  Hence  when  royal 
or  national  disaster  occurs,  the  chronicler  puts  his  finger  on 


28  I  AND   II   CHRONICLES 

the  spot  and  indicates  the  moral  flaw  which  caused  it. 
And  on  the  other  hand,  when  kings  were  loyal  to  Jehovah, 
he  seeks  to  pile  up  his  records  of  the  divine  blessings 
which  were  bestowed  upon  them.  Still  he  is  not,  even  here, 
so  hard  and  fast  a  theorist  as  to  present  a  cast-iron  system. 
Once  at  least  he  records  a  mystery  which  baffles  him — 
the  overthrow  of  Josiah  the  good — and  he  leaves  the 
reader  to  face  the  tragedy  of  Megiddq  in  only  partial  light. 
But  no  fact  is  more  patent  than  that  from  dawn  to  dusk  of 
his  country's  history  the  chronicler  reads  '  God,'  and  that 
he  endeavours  so  to  select  his  material  and  so  to  present 
it  as  to  teach  to  his  readers  the  one  great  fact  of  God's 
presence  with  men  through  all  the  exigencies  of  history. 

One  must  not  fail  to  notice,  too,  how  firmly  this  writer 
holds  the  doctrine  of  'the  purpose  of  God  according 
to  election.'  He  does  not,  indeed,  formulate  any  such 
dogma  as  we  are  accustomed  to  understand  by  the  term 
'  election ' ;  but  he  traces  the  evolution  of  the  divine 
purpose  from  Adam  to  the  edict  of  Cyrus  in  such  a  way 
that  he  consigns  to  oblivion  the  men  and  races  which 
failed  historically  to  hold  a  place  in  that  evolution.  As  an 
outstanding  example  of  this  we  may  note  the  way  in 
which  he  ignores  the  existence  of  the  kingdom  of 
Northern  Israel. 

Yet  he  is  strong  also  in  his  'doctrines  of  Grace.' 
Amid  the  recurring  fickleness  and  apostasy  of  Judaea,  he 
represents  God  as  continually  repenting  of  the  evil 
threatened  and  turning  back  to  bless  the  penitent.  To 
him,  God  is  always  wooing  the  sinner  by  His  prophets  and 
always  seeking  to  save.  And  it  is  only  when  kings  and 
people  have  dragged  their  country  under  the  heel  of  the 
Chaldean  that  He  is  represented  as  abandoning  them  to 
their  deserts  \ 

We  may,  perchance,  take  up  Chronicles  to  study  history  ; 
but  we  shall,  if  we  rightly  understand  it,  lay  it  down  with 


3  Chron.  xxxvi.  i6. 


INTRODUCTION  29 

the  realization  that  we  have  seen  into  the  heart  of  a  man 
of  God  and  come  face  to  face  with  God  Himself  in 
the  open  air  of  history. 

§  8.    The  Hebrew  Text  and  the  Versions. 

As  to  the  language  in  which  the  Chronicles  was  penned, 
we  find  on  every  page  traces  that  it  is  written  in  late 
Hebrew.  So  far  as  it  consists  of  original  matter,  and  not 
compilations,  its  language  is  that  which  prevailed  subse- 
quent to  the  age  of  Nehemiah.  New  words  are  used 
freely,  and  old  words  appear  with  new  significations.  The 
syntax  is  harsher  and  cruder  than  that  of  classic  Hebrew, 
and  is  full  of  affinities  with  the  incoming  Arabic  speech. 
One  cannot  escape  the  conviction  that  the  author  wrote  in 
a  language  which  was  no  longer  living,  but  stood  to  the 
ancient  Hebrew  speech  much  as  the  ecclesiastical  Latin 
of  the  Middle  Ages  stood  to  the  tongue  of  Cicero. 

The  original  text  of  Chronicles,  like  that  of  every  book 
of  the  O.T.,  is  still  a  question  of  some  uncertainty,  and  the 
efforts  of  scholars  are  constantly  directed  towards  dis- 
cerning the  correct  readings  of  the  Hebrew.  The 
frequency  of  doubtful  readings  is  due  to  the  fact  that  these 
books  must  certainly  have  been  copied  and  recopied  many 
times  before  the  date  of  the  first  printed  Hebrew  Bible. 
The  earliest  Hebrew  MS.  of  which  we  know  the  age 
is  dated  916  A.D.,  and  critics  are  agreed  that  the  original 
of  all  existing  copies  of  the  O.T.  was  a  single  MS.  which 
was  adopted  as  a  standard  copy  some  time  in  the  second 
or  third  century  of  our  era.  As  the  interval  between  the 
compilation  of  Chronicles  and  the  production  of  our 
earliest  MSS.  is  shorter  than  that  in  the  case  of  most 
other  books  of  the  O.T.,  there  is  a  natural  assumption  that 
fewer  mistakes  would  creep  in  through  transcription. 
And,  although  the  textual  criticism  of  Chronicles  is  a 
peculiarly  complicated  problem,  the  text  is  less  corrupt 
than  that  of  many  other  books,  and  many  of  its  errors  can 
be  readily  corrected  by  the  aid  of  Samuel  and  Kings. 


30  I   AND    II   CHRONICLES 

The  most  important  external  witness  to  the  original  text 
is  the  Greek  version  of  the  Hebrew  scriptures  which  was 
made  some  time  about  the  year  200  B.C.  for  the  use  of  the 
Greek-speaking  Jews  of  Alexandria.  This  version  is 
known  as  the  Septuagint  (LXX)  ^,  and  is  of  incomparable 
value  for  all  matters  of  textual  criticism.  It  was  the 
Bible  used  in  the  time  of  Christ  and  generally  quoted  in 
the  N.T.  Its  value  lies  in  the  fact  that  from  about  200  B.C. 
its  history  ran  parallel  to  that  of  the  Hebrew  text,  so  that 
any  later  changes  in  the  Hebrew  can  usually  be  noted 
by  comparison  with  the  Greek  version.  It  is  frequently 
evident  that  the  LXX  version  has  been  made  from  a 
Hebrew  text  which  differed  considerably  from  the  Hebrew 
which  has  come  down  to  us.  When  these  passages 
are  retranslated  into  Hebrew  they  consequently  form 
a  valuable  indication  of  the  original  reading  at  the  date 
when  the  earliest  Greek  version  was  made.  It  then 
becomes  the  task  of  the  critic  to  determine  which  reading 
is  preferable  by  applying  the  rules  of  textual  criticism. 
Each  passage  in  question  requires  to  be  examined  upon  its 
own  merits,  and  no  general  rule  can  be  laid  down  as  to 
whether  the  Hebrew  or  the  Greek  is  to  be  preferred.  And 
we  shall  note  and  discuss  all  important  differences  in  the 
course  of  our  annotation  of  the  text.  But  there  is  an 
important  fact  to  be  reckoned  with  in  our  treatment 
of  the  LXX,  viz.  that  it  has  in  its  turn  undergone  numerous 
revisions  -,  during  which  later  scholars  laboured  under  the 
resistless  tendency  to  bring  the  Greek  more  and  more  into 
harmony  with  the  accepted  Hebrew  text.  In  the  result 
we  see  that  a  Greek  version  may  often  have  a  stronger 
claim  to  be  original  just  when  it  differs  most  from  the 
Hebrew  text.  It  has  hitherto  been  impossible  to  deter- 
mine with  any  degree  of  certainty  the  original  text  of  the 

1  Cf.  Swete's  liilyod.  to  the  O.  T.  in  Greek,  1900  )  and  Driver's 
Notes. 

2  Cf.  Skinner  on  Kin^s,  Introd.  §  7. 


INTRODUCTION 


31 


LXX  ;  but,  in  our  textual  criticism  of  the  Hebrew,  there 
are  two  parallel  editions  of  the  Greek,  representing 
two  distinct  classes  of  MSS.,  which  may  be  used  with 
confidence.  There  is,  firstly,  the  version  known  as 
LXX  (B),  found  in  the  MS.  at  the  Vatican,  and  printed  in 
the  edition  of  Swete.  And  there  is,  secondly,  the  version 
known  as  LXX  (L),  generally  held  to  be  derived  from 
Lucian  of  Antioch,  and  printed  in  the  edition  of  Lagarde. 
In  addition  to  the  Greek  version,  we  have  the  valuable 
testimony  of  the  Syriac  and  the  Latin  Vulgate. 


Chronology  of  Chronicles 


Year  of 
Accession  b.c. 
+  1025 

lOIO 

971 
932 
916 

914 

874 
850 

843 
843 
837 
798 
790 
749 

735 
720 
692 
638 

637 
607 
607 
597 
597 
587 
537 


Length  of 
Reign. 

Saul i5(or4o  yrs, 

David 40   years. 

Solomon 40         .. 

Rehoboam 17         ,. 

Abijah 3         „ 

Asa 41  ,, 

Jehoshapliat      ....  25         ., 

Jehoram 8         ,. 

Ahaziah i  ,, 

Athaliah 7         .. 

Joash 40         ,, 

Amaziah  ....  .       9  ^      ,, 

Uzziah 52         „ 

Jotham  (with  Uzziali)     .11         ,, 
„       (alone'   ....       5         \, 

Ahaz 16         ,, 

Hezekiah 29         ,. 

Manasseh 55         .. 

Amon 2         '.. 

Josiah 31  ., 

Jehoahaz 3  months. 

Jehoiakim ii  years. 

Jehoiachin 3  montlib. 

Zedekiah 11  years. 

Fall  of  Jerusalem. 
Edict  of  Cyrus. 


*  For  full  discussion  cf.   Skinner  on  Kings,  Introd.,  §7, 
Centuf'v  Bible. 


32  I   AND   II   CHRONICLES 

Reference  Works. 

LXX,  Greek  Version  of  the  Old  Testament  (Septuagint). 

LXX  (B),  Greek  Version  in  Vatican  MS.     Swete's  edition. 

1887. 

LXX  (L),  Greek  Version,  Lucian's  Recension.  Lagarde's 
edition.     1883. 

JosEPHUS,  Jewish  Antiquities  Sixxd  Against  Apion. 

Bennett,  W.  H.,  The  Book  of  Chronicles.  Expositor's 
Bible.     1894. 

Barnes,  W,  E.,  *  Religious  Standpoint  of  the  Chronicles,' 
in  Journal  of  Semitic  Languages.      1896. 

Driver,  Introd.  to  the  Lit.  of  the  O.  T.     1897. 

Delitzsch,  Chronicles. 

Encyclopaedia  Btbltca. 

EwALD,  History  of  Israel.     1878. 

Hastings,  Dictionary  of  the  Bible. 

lIiLPRicHT,  Explorations  in  Bible  Lands.     1903. 

Keil,  Chronicles. 

KiTTEL,  (i)  Chronicles— (Zv\i\cz\  editions  of  the  Hebrew 
text.     1895. 

KiTTEL,  (2}  Die  Biicher  der  Chronik,  in  Nowack's  Hand- 
komwentar.     1902. 

KuENEN,  Einleitung  in  das  A.  T. 

Smith,  G.  A.,  Historical  Geography  of  ilie  Holy  Land.   1894. 


THE 
BOOK   OF    THE    CHRONICLES 

REVISED  VERSION   WITH   ANNOTATIONS 


THE    FIRST    BOOK 

OF 

THE    CHRONICLES 

[Ch^]  Adam,  Seth,  Enosh ;  Kenan,  Mahalalel,  Jared ;  1 

I.    FIRST    PART 
i — iz.     Geuealogrical  Summary  from  Adam,  to  David. 

The  first  nine  chapters  form  an  introduction  to  the  chronicler's 
history  of  the  Jewish  people  and  of  their  Temple.  This  intro- 
duction takes  the  form  of  genealogical  summaries,  following  the 
mode  often  employed  in  literature  of  the  period.  But  even  here 
the  author  is  guided  by  an  eclecticism  which  reveals  at  the  outset 
the  aim  which  actuates  him  in  rewriting  his  people's  history. 
The  aim  thus  revealed  is  to  trace  the  channels  which  the  Divine 
will  had  employed  in  executing  the  purpose  of  God  and  establish- 
ing His  Church  among  men. 

The  book  opens  with  the  name  of  Adam,  the  fountain-head  of 
the  race.  The  first  chapter  is  devoted  to  the  patriarchs  from 
Adam  through  Seth  to  Abraham  and  his  sons,  amongst  whom  a 
surprisingly  large  space  is  given  to  the  Edomites,  From  this 
point  on  to  chap.  iv.  23  it  is  the  tribe  of  Judah  and  the  line  of 
David  that  receive  paramount  consideration.  Most  of  the  tribes 
of  Israel  are  subsequently  dealt  with,  but  amongst  them  the  largest 
space,  after  Judah,  is  devoted  to  Levi  and  Benjamin.  Emphasis 
is  laid  upon  the  importance  of  the  Aaronic  priesthood  by  a  double 
genealogy  from  Eleazar  to  Ahimaaz,  and  by  the  entire  omission 
of  the  house  of  Eli.  The  records  then  close  with  a  list  of  the 
post-exilic  inhabitants  of  Jerusalem  and  of  the  ministrants  of 
the  Temple.  Such  summaries  in  themselves  are  sufficient  indica- 
tion that  the  chronicler  read  history  from  the  Levitic  standpoint, 
and  that,  from  such  a  standpoint,  he  was  prepared  to  insist  that 
'through  the  ages  one  unceasing  purpose  runs.' 

In  prefacing  his  work  by  this  condensed  review  of  early  history 
the  compiler  of  the  originally  undivided  work,  Chronicles-Ezra- 
Nehemiah,  has  produced  a  consecutive  history  of  the  Jewish  race 
from  Adam  almost  down  to  the  days  of  Alexander  the  Great. 
Moreover,  this  Levitic  history  runs  parallel  to  the  Deuteronomic 
history,  recorded  in  the  Pentateuch  and  the  'Former  Prophets,'  in 

D    2 


36  I    CHRONICLES  1.  2.     Ch- 

which  the  rise  and  fortunes  of  the  people  are  recorded  from  Adnm 
to  the  great  Exile. 

There  is  no  difficulty  in  accounting  for  the  existence  of  such 
abundant  genealogical  material  as  the  chronicler  evidently  found 
ready  to  his  hand.  Israel,  like  other  early  pastoral  races,  laid  stress 
upon  the  preservation  of  family  records.  When  the  people  became 
a  settled  nation  the  preservation  of  these  records  was  maintained 
as  strictly  as  ever,  and  seems  even  to  have  been  supervised  by  the 
State.  Further,  the  Exile,  which  destroyed  the  State,  rather 
enhanced  than  enfeebled  the  jealousy  with  which  these  early 
registers  were  kept ;  and  not  only  were  old  records  carefully 
preserved,  but  new  ones  were  evidently  compiled  during  the 
Exile. 

That  the  chronicler's  genealogies  have  been  pieced  together 
from  many  sources  is  evident  from  the  fact  that  they  are  not 
free  from  discrepancies  and  duplicates.  That  they  have  been 
compiled  with  unique  care  is  seen  in  the  preservation  of  every 
shred  of  evidence  entitling  a  man  to  national  and  priestly  privi- 
leges, even  when  this  involved  the  retention  of  alternative 
genealogies  in  several  instances.  Nothing  seems  to  have  been 
omitted  which  bore  upon  the  Divine  purpose  of  singling  out  the 
house  of  Levi  for  special  eminence  in  the  Jewish  Church  ;  and 
little  is  inserted  that  deals  with  families  seemingl}*  passed  over  b\' 
the  Divine  plan.  Yet,  at  the  same  time,  the  large  space  given  to 
the  genealogies  of  the  favoured  tribes  may  be  partially  accounted 
for  by  other  reasons,  viz.  that  the  tribes  of  Judah.  Levi,  and 
Benjamin  constituted  the  bulk  of  the  people  who  returned  from 
the  Exile  with  Ezra.  But  it  is  to  be  carefully  noted  that  the  only 
lines  which  are  traced  without  a  break  to  the  days  of  the  Exile 
are  the  lines  of  David  and  of  the  high-priests  of  Eleazars  house. 

(t)  i.      Genealogies  of  the  Patriarchal  Period. 
The  genealogies  of  ch.  i  are  a  mosaic  formed  by  transcription 
and  condensation  from  Genesis  :  thus  : — 

22-29. 


Verses  14        

Gen.  V. 

V      5-23      

,.     X.  2-4,  6-8,  13- 1  i 

,,      24-27    

.,     xi.  10-26. 

„      29-31    

,,     XXV.  13-16. 

„      32,33    

,,     XXV.  1-4. 

Verse    34           

,.      XXV.  19. 

Verses  35-42    

,,     xxxvi.  1-30. 

,•      43-50    

,,      xxxvi.  31-39. 

^.      51   54     

.,     xxxvi.  40-43- 

i.  1-4.  From  Adam  to  Noah  and  his  sons.  The  names  of  the 
ten  patriarchs  and  the  three  sons  of  Noah  are  excerpted  from  'the 
book  of  the  generations  of  Adam.'  Gen.  v.  They  stand  witliout 
any  indication  of  the  relationship  existing  between  them. 


I    CHRONICLES  1.  3-12.     Ch=  H  R  R  37 

Enoch,  Methuselah^  Lamech ;   Noah,  Shem,  Ham,  and  3>4 
Japheth. 

[H]  The  sons  of  Japheth  ;    Gomer,  and  Magog,  and  5 
Madai,  and  Javan,  and  Tubal,  and  Meshech,  and  Tiras. 
And  the  sons  of  Gomer ;  Ashkenaz,  and  Diphath,  and  6 
Togarmah.       And    the   sons   of    Javan ;    Elishah,    and  7 
Tarshish,  Kittim,  and  Rodanim. 

The  sons  of  Ham ;    Cush,   and    Mizraim,   Put,   and  8 
Canaan.     And  the  sons  of  Cush ;   Seba,  and   Havilah,  9 
and  Sabta,  and  Raama,  and  Sabteca.     And  the  sons  of 
Raamah ;    Sheba,   and  Dedan.     [R]    And  Cush   begat  10 
Nimrod :   he  began   to  be  a  mighty  one  in   the  earth. 
[R-]  And   Mizraim   begat   Ludim,   and   Anamim,   and  n 
Lehabim,  and  Naphtuhim,  and  Pathrusim,  and  Casluhim  12 

2.  Keuan  :  LXX  Kainan,  which  seems  to  represent  the  Aramaic 
pronunciation  of  the  Hebrew.  Hebrew  was  a  dead  language  at 
the  time  when  the  LXX  version  was  made. 

4.  The  LXX  omits  •  sens  of  Noah '  after  the  name  of  the 
Patriarch  :  cf.  Gen.  x.  i. 

i.  5-23.  Noah  and  his  descendants.  The  seventy-one  names  of 
the  descendants  of  the  three  sons  of  Noah  include  both  individuals 
and  tribes.  First  come  fourteen  races  descended  from  Japheth 
(verses  5-7),  then  thirty-one  descended  from  Ham  (verses  8-16), 
and,  lastly,  twenty-six  descended  from  Shem  (verses  17-23). 
This  enumeration  accounts  for  the  entire  racial  population  of  the 
world  according  to  the  ethnography  of  the  chronicler's  day.  The 
omission  of  some  of  the  notes  of  relationship  (e.g.  verse  17  :  cf. 
Gen.  X.  23)  implies  the  accessibility  of  the  register  whence  the 
names  are  culled.  The  same  fact  may  account  for  the  omission  of 
the  founding  of  the  great  Chaldean  cities  of  Gen.  x.  10,  11  and  the 
retention  of  such  insignificant  statements  as  the  meaning  of  the 
name  of  Peleg  (verse  19). 

Verses  11-23  are  lacking  in  the  LXX(B),  with  the  exception  of 
the  opening  phrase  of  verse  17,  'The  sons  of  Shem;  Elam,  and 
Asshur.'  This  fact,  added  to  the  fact  that  the  presence  of  these 
verses  gives  us  a  duplicate  genealogy  of  the  Shemites  (cf.  verses 
24-27),  affords  conclusive  proof  that  the  passage  is  the  insertion 
of  a  later  redacter. 

6.  Diphath:  orthographical  error  for  Riphath :  cf.  Gen.  x.  3. 

*1,  Rodanim  :  correct,  in  spite  of  Dodanim  of  Gen.  x.  4. 


38  I   CHRONICLES  1.  13-31.     R' Ch^  H 

(from  whence   came   the   PhiHstines),   and   Caphtorim. 
I?,  H  And  Canaan  begat  Zidon  his  firstborn,  and  Heth ;  and 

15  the  Jebusite,  and  the  Amorite,  and  the  Girgashite;  and 

16  the  Hivite,  and   the  Arkite,  and  the  Sinite ;   and  the 
Arvadite,  and  the  Zemarite,  and  the  Hamathite. 

17  ThesonsofShem;  Elam,  and  Asshur,  and  Arpachshad, 
and  Lud,  and  Aram,  and  Uz,  and  Hul,  and  Gether,  and 

18  Meshech.     And  Arpachshad  begat  Shelah,  and  Shelah 

19  begat  Eber.     And  unto  Eber  were  born  two  sons :  the 
name  of  the  one  was  Peleg ;  for  in  his  days  the  earth  was 

20  divided ;    and   his  brother's   name  was   Joktan.      And 
Joktan  begat  Almodad,  and  Sheleph,  and  Hazarmaveth, 

21,  22  and  Jerah;  and  Hadoram,  and  Uzal,  and  Diklah  ;  and 

23  Ebal,  and  Abimael,  and  Sheba ;  and  Ophir,  and  Havilah, 

and  Jobab.     All  these  were  the  sons  of  Joktan. 

34, 25      [Ch-]  Shem,  Arpachshad,  Shelah ;  Eber,  Peleg,  Reu  ; 

26,  27  Serug,  Nahor,  Terah ;   Abram  (the  same  is  Abraham). 

28  The  sons  of  Abraham ;  Isaac,  and  Ishmael. 

29  These   are   their  generations :    [H]    the   firstborn  of 
Ishmael,  Nebaioth  ;  then  Kedar,  and  Adbeel,  and  Mib- 

30  sam,  Mishma,  and  Dumah,  Massa ;  Hadad,  and  Tema, 

31  Jetur,  Naphish,  and  Kedemah.     These  are  the  sons  of 
Ishmael. 


20.  Hazarmaveth :  the  name  literally  means  '  court  of  death.' 
Possibly  it  is  a  place-name  referred  subsequently  to  an  eponymous 
ancestor  (Bennett). 

i.  24-27.  From  Shem  to  Abraham.  A  list  of  the  lineal  descend- 
ants of  Shem,  omitting  notes  of  relationship. 

27.  Abram  (the  same  is  Abraham)  :  LXX  simply  reads 
'Abraham  '  ;  the  addition  in  the  Hebrew  text  is  probably  intended 
to  refer  the  reader  to  the  history  of  Abraham  in  the  Pentateuch. 

i.  28-34.  The  Sons  of  Abraham.  The  sons  of  Ishmael  are 
given  first,  those  of  Isaac  last,  and  the  sons  of  Abraham  by  Keturah 
are  inserted  in  the  middle. 


I   CHRONICLES  1.  32-42.     H  Ch-  H  39 

And  the  sons  of  Keturah,  Abraham's  concubine :  she  32 
bare  Zimran,  and  Jokshan,  and  Medan,  and  Midian,  and 
Ishbak,  and  Shuah.     And  the  sons  of  Jokshan  ;  Sheba, 
and    Dedan.     And   the   sons   of  Midian ;  Ephah,   and  33 
Epher,  and  Hanoch,  and  Abida,  and  Eldaah.     All  these 
were  the  sons  of  Keturah. 

[Ch^J  And  Abraham  begat  Isaac.     The  sons  of  Isaac ;  34 
Esau,  and  Israel. 

The  sons  of  Esau ;   Ehphaz,  Reuel,  and  Jeush,  and  35 
Jalam,  and  Korah.     The  sons  of  Eliphaz;  Teman,  and  36 
■  Omar,  Zephi,  and  Gatam,  Kenaz,  and  Timna,  and  Amalek. 
The  sons   of  Reuel ;    Nahath,    Zerah,    Shammah,    and  37 
Mizzah.     And  the  sons  of  Seir ;  I  H]  Lotan  and  Shobal  38 
and  Zibeon  and  Anah,  and  Dishon  and  Ezer  and  Dishan. 
And  the  sons  of  Lotan ;  Hori  and  Homam  :  and  Timna  39 
was   Lotan's    sister.     The  sons  of  Shobal ;    Alian  and  40 
Manahath  and  Ebal,  Shephi  and  Onam.     And  the  sons 
of  Zibeon  ;  Aiah  and  Anah.    The  sons  of  Anah;  Dishon.  41 
And   the  sons  of  Dishon ;    Hamran  and  Eshban  and 
Ithran   and  Cheran.     The  sons  of  Ezer ;    Bilhan  and  42 
Zaavan,  Jaakan.     The  sons  of  Dishan;  Uz  and  Aran. 

32,  33.  Through  Keturah  the  Midianite  clans  were  connected 
with  Israel. 

34.  Esau  and  Israel :  LXX(B')  reads  'Jacob  and  Esau,'  though 
LXX  (L)  retains  the  reading  of  the  Hebrew. 

35-42.  Clans  of  Edom  and  Seir.  We  must  note  the  condensed 
narrative  form  of  verse  36,  which  is  misleading  to  a  modern  reader, 
although  intelligible  to  one  who  had  access  to  the  earlier  records. 
Timna  is  named  among  the  sons  of  Eliphaz  ;  she  is  really  his  con- 
cubine, and  Amalek  is  her  son  (cf.  Gen.  xxxvi.  isX  Again,  note  that 
in  verses  35-37  we  have  the  names  of  the  heads  of  the  thirteen  clans 
of  Esau,  followed  by  the  names  of  the  seven  aboriginal  tribe-leaders 
of  Seir,  with  whom  the  conquering  Edomites  blended  to  form  the 
twenty  dukedoms  of  Edom.  These  facts  reveal  to  us  the  general 
character  of  these  genealogical  summaries  and  their  tendency  to 
group  names  of  individuals,  clans,  and  places  on  an  equal  footing 
and  without  discrimination. 


40        I   CHRONICLES  1.  4o-54~-2.  i.     H  Ch^ 

43  Now  these  are  the  kings  that  reigned  in  the  land  of 
Edom,  before  there  reigned  any  king  over  the  children 
of  Israel :  Bela  the  son  of  Beor ;  and  the  name  of  his 

44  city  was  Dinhabah.     And  Bela  died,  and  Jobab  the  son 

45  of  Zerah  of  Bozrah  reigned  in  his  stead.  And  Jobab 
died,    and    Husham    of    the    land    of    the    Temanites 

46  reigned  in  his  stead.  And  Husham  died,  and  Hadad 
the  son  of  Bedad,  which  smote  Midian  in  the  field  of 
Moab,  reigned  in  his  stead  :  and  the  name  of  his  city 

47  was  Avith.     And  Hadad  died,  and  Samlah  of  Masrekah 

48  reigned  in  his  stead.     And  Samlah  died,  and  Shaul  of 

49  Rehoboth  by  the  River  reigned  in  his  stead.  And  Shaul 
died,  and  Baal-hanan  the  son  of  Achbor  reigned  in  his 

50  stead.  And  Baal-hanan  died,  and  Hadad  reigned  in  his 
stead ;  and  the  name  of  his  city  was  Pai  :  and  his  wife's 
name   was    Mehetabel,    the   daughter    of    Matred,    the 

51  daughter  of  Me-zahab.  And  Hadad  died.  And  the 
dukes  of  Edom  were ;   duke  Timna,  duke  Aliah,  duke 

52  Jetheth ;  duke  Ohoh'bamah,    duke   Elah,  duke   Pinon  ; 
53>  54  duke  Kenaz,  duke  Teman,  duke  Mibzar  ;  duke  Magdiel, 

duke  Irani.     These  are  the  dukes  of  Edom. 
2      [Ch-]  These  are  the  sons  of  Israel ;  Reuben,  Simeon, 


i-  43-50-   Kings  of  Edom. 

43.  The  LXX  simply  reads,  'And  these  were  their  kings, 
Balak  son  of  Beor,  and  the  name  of  his  city  was  Dennaba.'  This 
was  probably  the  original  text. 

51-54.  Dukes  of  Edom.  It  is  again  evident,  from  the  inclusion 
of  female  names  and  tribal  names  in  the  list  of  dukes,  that  districts 
are  referred  to  rather  than  individuals.  The  original.  Gen.  xxxvi. 
40-43,  bears  this  out.  Moreover,  the  number  of  the  thirteen  dukes 
is  reduced  to  eleven  in  this  passage,  which  names  the  clan- 
districts. 

(21  ii — iv.  23.     Sons  0/ Israel  and  the  Irihe  of  Jitdali. 

Throughout  these  genealogical  tables  the  aim  of  the  chronicler 
has  been  lc?j;s  strictly  genealogical  than   geographical.      He   has 


I    CHRONICLES  2.  2-4.  Ch-  H  Ch'         41 

Levi,   and  Judah,  Issachar  and  Zebulun;  Dan,  Joseph  a 
and  Benjamin,  Naphtali,  Gad  and  Asher, 

The  sons  of  Judah  ;  Er,  and  Onan,  and  Shelah  :  which  3 
three  were  born  unto  him  of  Bath-shua  the  Canaanitess. 
[H]  And  Er,  Judah's  firstborn,  was  wicked  in  the  sight 
of  the  Lord  ;  and  he  slew  him.     [Ch'^]  And  Tamar  his  4 

endeavoured  to  explain  the  origin  of  the  distribution  of  the 
population,  and  has  consequently  blended  the  names  of  personal 
ancestors  with  eponymous  ancestors.  Many  of  the  names  in 
these  three  chapters  consequently  stand  for  tribes  which  became 
incorporated  with  Judah  at  some  point  in  its  history  ;  and  the 
long-recognized  fact  of  this  complete  fusion  with  alien  tribes  is 
here  expressed  by  the  prevalent  method  of  genealogical  tables. 

The  chronicler  devotes  these  two  and  a  half  chapters  to  the  all- 
powerful  tribe  of  Judah.  And  it  is  noticeable  that  in  ch.  ii  and 
ch.  iv  we  have  two  independent  and  parallel  genealogies  of  the 
tribe.  Many  of  the  names  found  are  common  to  both  records. 
Evidently,  then,  we  have  here  a  case  of  doublets  ;  and  the  two 
tables  should  probably  be  regarded  as  the  genealogies  accepted  at 
two  different  periods,  both  of  which  the  compiler  held  to  be  worthy 
of  preservation. 

In  this  section  we  find  a  treatment  of  the  genealogy  of  the  three 
sons  of  Judah,  Shalah.  Pharez,  and  Zerah,  the  descendants  of 
Pharez  being  divided  into  two  lines  founded  by  Hezron  and 
Hamul.  The  descendants  of  Hezron  are  traced  with  great  care 
through  David  to  the  house  of  Zerubbabel,  and  considerable  space 
is  given  to  the  lines  of  Caleb  and  Jerahmeel.  The  section  is  com- 
pleted with  other  fragmentary  records  of  the  sons  of  Pharez  and 
Shelah. 

The  material  for  these  genealogies  is  drawn  from  extant  O.  T. 
sources  thus  : — 

Gen.  XXXV.  23-26. 

Gen.  xxxviii.  2-7,  29,  30  ;  xlvi.  12. 

I  Kings  iv.  31  ;  Joshua  vii.  1. 

Ruth  iv.  19-21. 

1  Sam.  xvi.  6-13  ;  2  Sam.  ii.  18  ;  xvii.  25. 

2  Sam.  iii.  2-5  ;  v.  5,  14-16. 
Kings. 

Sons  of  Israel.  Dan  is  assigned  a  place  immediately 
after  the  sons  of  Leah,  differing  from  the  position  given  in 
Genesis. 

(b)  ii.  3-5.    Sons  of  Judah. 

3.  LORC  :  whenever  the  Divine  name  is  thus  printed  in  four 


Chron, 

.  ii. 

1,2 

n. 
ii. 

3-5 
6-8 

J) 

n. 

10-12 

)5 

ii. 

iii. 
iii. 

13-17 
I  9 
10-16 

rii.  1, 

2. 

Sons  c 

42         I    CHRONICLES  2.  5-9.     Ch^  H  Ch  H^ 

daughter  in  law  bare  him  Perez  and  Zerah.     All  the  sons 

5  of  Judah  were  five.     [H]  The  sons  of  Perez ;    Hezron 

6  and  Hamul.     [Ch]  And  the  sons  of  Zerah ;  Zimri,  and 
Ethan,  and  Heman,  and  Calcol,  and  Dara  :  five  of  them 

7  in  all.     And  the  sons  of  Carmi ;  Achar,  the  troubler  of 
Israel,  who  committed  a  trespass  in  the  devoted  thing. 

1^  9  And  the  sons  of  Ethan  ;  Azariah.     [H-]  The  sons  also 


capitals  it  represents  the  name  Yahweh  (Jehovah)  of  the  original. 
The  name  stands  for  the  self-existent  deity.  It  is  probably  derived 
from  the  imperfect  tense  of  the  Hebrew  verb  *  to  be '  (cf.  '  I  am 
that  I  am '),  but  the  reverence  with  which  the  name  was  treated 
led  to  the  substitution  of  the  word  Lord  ('Adonai)  in  its  place  in 
speech  and  reading.  Hence  the  original  pronunciation  was  lost ; 
and  our  word  Jehovah  merely  represents  the  consonants  of  the 
original  word  pronounced  with  the  vowels  of  'Adonai. 

(r)  ii.  6-8.  Descendants  of  Zerah.  Nowhere  else  do  we  find 
the  five  sons  of  Zerah  (verse  6)  named  together  ;  but  four  of  them 
are  given  in  i  Kings  iv.  31  (i.e.  i  Kings  v.  11  of  the  Hebrew 
Bible),  as  wise  men  of  fame  in  Solomon's  day.  There  the  two 
latter  are  called  sons  of  Mahal,  and  it  is  by  no  means  certain  that 
they  are  here  represented  as  *  sons  of  Zerah  '  in  the  real  sense. 
Probably  steps  in  the  genealogy  have  been  omitted.  There  is  no 
reason  for  identifying  Ethan  and  Heman,  who  are  probably  the 
authors  of  Psalms  Ixxxviii  and  Ixxxix,  with  the  Levites  so  named 
in  I  Chron.  xv.  17,  19,  of  whom  the  chronicler  gives  a  very 
different  genealogy  in  ch.  vi  ;  whereas  he  would  have  been 
predisposed  to  claim  these  psalmists  as  Levites  had  it  been 
possible.  However,  these  men  were  of  sufficient  note  to  be 
named  with  the  few  prominent  descendants  of  Zerah  who  are  here 
selected  for  mention. 

*1 .  devoted  thing-:  Heb.  herem,  LXX  'anathema':  denotes 
any  person  or  thing  devoted  to  Jehovah  by  being  destroyed  ;  e.  g. 
the  gold  of  Jericho.  Achan  violated  the  taboo  of  Joshua  and 
thus  merited  the  name  of  Achar,  '  troubled '  :  the  reference  is  to 
Joshua  vii.  i. 

(d)  ii.  9-41.  Descendants  of  Hezron.  The  families  of  Hezron 
are  not  given  in  the  order  of  seniority  of  their  heads.  Moreover 
the  chronicler  is  still  frequently  stating  tribal  relationships  rather 
than  personal  connexions.  He  is  reading  backward  from  his  own 
day  in  order  to  explain  the  local  situations  of  the  members  of 
this  important  clan. 


I   CHRONICLES  2.  lo.     H^  43 

of  Hezron,  that  were  born  unto  him  ;   Jerahmeel,  and 
Ram,    and   Chelubai.     And    Ram   begat   Amminadab;  10 


9.  Jerahmeel  probably  represents  a  tribe  of  the  S.-E.  Negeb, 
in  the  far  south  of  Palestine,  which  united  its  fortunes  to  those 
of  Judah  during  the  later  wanderings  of  the  Exodus.  They 
subsequently  occupied  the  south  of  Judah  from  the  time  of  the 
Conquest  to  the  Captivity,  and  became  completely  fused  with  the 
tribe  in  religion  and  in  history. 

Ram  was  evidently  the  lineal  descendant  of  Hezron  and  is 
the  Aram  of  LXX  and  Matt.  i.  3. 

Chelubai:  i.  e.  Caleb,  He  is  always  spoken  of  as  a  Kenezite 
(cf.  Num.  xxxii.  12),  i.  e.  one  of  Edomite  extraction  (cf.  Gen. 
xxxvi.  11).  He  is  the  hero  of  the  Conquest  and  the  head  of  the 
clan  which,  along  with  the  Jerahmeelites,  identified  itself  with 
Judah  and  occupied  the  region  of  Hebron. 

The  genealogies  of  these  '  sens  of  Hezron  '  present  various 
difficulties.  («)  They  are  not  given  in  the  order  of  primogeniture. 
(6)  The  descendants  of  Caleb  are  given  in  three  different  forms  in 
verses  18-24,  4^-49,  and  50-55.  (c)  In  verses  25  and  27  Ram  is 
represented  as  the  son,  not  the  younger  brother,  of  Jerahmeel. 
Evidently  the  chronicler's  original  plan  has  been  upset,  and  we 
are  compelled  (with  Kittel)  to  assign  verses  18-24,  34-41  and 
50-55  to  a  later  redactor.  This  leaves  records  of  the  three  sons 
of  Hezron  with  which  the  chronicler  set  out  in  verse  9. 
Wellhausen  would  also  refer  verses  10-17  ('the  sons  of  Ram') 
to  another  source  than  the  w^ork  of  the  chronicler  (cf.  Hist. 
p.  216  ff.),  and  we  discuss  this  below.  Further,  verses  42-49  must 
probably  be  read  as  describing  the  pre-exilic  locations  of  the 
Calebites,  while  50-55  describe  their  post-exilic  abodes. 

ii.  10-17.  The  Descettdants  of  Ram.  It  is  quite  probable  that 
the  descendants  of  Ram  are  placed  first  among  the  sons  of  Hezron 
because  they  represent  the  royal  line  of  David.  Moreover,  the 
confusion  evident  throughout  the  chapter,  with  its  fragmentary 
records,  renders  it  probable  that  the  chronicler  only  found  the 
genealogies  of  Jerahmeel  and  Caleb  in  his  ancient  source,  and 
that  he  went  to  Ruth  iv  (the  only  extant  genealogy  of  David 
which  carried  the  succession  down  belov^^  Jesse,  and  itself  a 
late  work)  for  his  tables  of  the  posterity  of  Ram.  It  is  possible 
that  the  chronicler  was  led  to  compile  this  original  genealogy  of 
Ram  by  confusing,  in  the  first  instance,  the  son  of  Hezron  and 
the  eldest  son  of  Jerahmeel  (cf.  verse  27).  Further,  as  a  period 
of  some  830  years  separated  the  Exodus  from  the  days  of  Jesse, 
it  is  evident  that  the  seven  generations  here  named  do  not 
represent  all  the  links  in  David's  lineage. 


44         I    CHRONICLES  2.  11-18.     H=  H  Ch  R 

and  Amminadab  begat  Nahshon,  prince  of  the  children 
1 1  of  Judah  ;  [H]  and  Nahshon  begat  Sahna,  and  Sahna 
13  begat  Boaz;   and  Boaz  begat  Obed,  and  Obed  begat 

13  Jesse;    [Ch]  and  Jesse  beget   his  firstborn   EHab,  and 

14  Abinadab  the  second,  and  Shimea  the  third ;  Nethanel 

15  the  fourth,  Raddai  the  fifth;  Ozem  the  sixth,  David  the 

16  seventh  :  and  their  sisters  were  Zeruiah  and  Abigail. 
And  the  sons  of  Zeruiah  ;  Abishai,  and  Joab,  and  Asahel, 

1 7  three.     And  Abigail  bare   Amasa :    and  the  father  of 

18  Amasa  was  Jether  the  Ishmaelite.  [R]  And  Caleb  the 
son  of  Hezron  begat  children  of  Azubah  his  wife,  and  of 
Jerioth  :  and  these  were  her  sons ;  Jesher,  and  Shobab, 

10.  Nahshon:  mentioned  in  Num.  i,  7,  ii.  3,  vii.  12,  as 
a  prince  of  Judah  at  the  time  of  the  Exodus. 

13.  Jesse:  in  i  Sam.  xvii.  12  we  learn  that  he  had  eight  sons  ; 
of  these,  one  may  have  died  childless,  and  would  then  be  omitted 
from  the  genealogy. 

16.  Zeruiah  and  Abig-ail :  David's  sisters  deserved  special 
mention  owing  to  the  military  prowess  of  their  sons  at  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  monarchy. 

ii.  18-24.  The  Descendants  of  Caleb.  These  records  of  the 
house  of  Caleb  are  given  in  the  form  of  loose  notes,  lacking  in 
continuity,  the  one  important  point  being  their  connexion  with  the 
tribe  of  Judah.  The  free  intermingling  of  place-names  is  an 
indication  that  the  chronicler  is  piecing  together  various  evi- 
dences of  the  local  settlements  of  the  Calebites  at  different  periods 
of  the  history  of  their  clan.  In  verses  21-23  we  find  a  Gileadite 
genealogy  introduced,  and  the  question  arises  as  to  whether  these 
Gileadites  were  really  connected  with  another  Hezron,  here 
confused  with  the  son  of  Perez,  or  whether  they  were  aliens  who 
eventually  blended  with  Judah.  The  latter  explanation  is  to  be 
preferred,  on  the  ground  that  these  trans-Jordan ic  clans,  when 
decimated  by  the  A.ssyrian  captivity,  probably  sought  safety  by 
migrating  to  Judah  some  time  during  the  days  of  Hezekiah.  Pre- 
exilic  conditions  are  represented. 

18.  Caleb  :  a  shorter  form  of  Chelubai. 

Jerioth :  the  text  is  certainly  corrupt,  and  it  has  been 
proposed,  by  a  slight  change,  to  read  *  he  begat,  of  Azubah  his 
wife,  Jerioth '  (i.  e.  a  daughter).  The  names  of  Azubah's  sons, 
when  slightly  amended,  give  the  unique  significance  of  'Upright, 
Backslider,  Destruction.' 


I   CHRONICLES  2.  19-25.     R  45 

and  Ardon.     And  Azubah  died,  and  Caleb  took  unto  19 
him   Ephrath,  which  bare  him   Hur.     And   Hur  begat  20 
Uri,  and    Uri    begat    Bezalel.     And   afterward    Hezron  21 
went  in  to  the  daughter  of  Machir  the  father  of  Gilead  ; 
whom  he  took  ^o  wife,  when  he  was  threescore  years  old ; 
and  she  bare  him  Segub.     And  Segub  begat  Jair,  who  22 
had  three  and  twenty  cities  in  the  land  of  Gilead.     And  23 
Geshur  and  Aram  took  the  towns  of  Jair  from  them,  with 
Kenath,  and  the  villages  thereof,  even  threescore  cities. 
All  these  were  the  sons  of  Machir  the  father  of  Gilead. 
And  after  that   Hezron  was  dead    in   Caleb-ephrathah,  24 
then  Abiah  Hezron's  wife  bare  him  Ashhur  the  father  of 
Tekoa.     And   the  sons    of  Jerahmeel   the  firstborn  of  25 

20.  Bezalel :  the  famous  Tabernacle-smith. 

21.  Machir:  the  eldest  son  of  Manasseh.  This  marriage- 
alhance  with  Manasseh  is  the  genealogist's  explanation  of  the 
reckoning  of  Jair  vversessa,  23.  to  Judah  in  this  passage,  whereas 
the  Pentateuch  numbers  him  with  Manasseh.  The  descendants 
of  Jair  are  said  to  have  possessed  sixty  fenced  cities  in  Gilead, 
of  which  thirtj'-seven  are  comprised  under  the  title  of  '  Kenath 
and  her  daughters'  (R.  V.  villages).  These  cities  suffered  under 
a  raid  by  the  Arameans  of  Geshur,  as  here  stated. 

24.  Caleb-eplirathah  :  probably  Bethlehem,  deriving  its  title 
of  Ephrathah  from  the  fact  that  it  was  the  birthplace  of  Caleb's 
first  wife.  The  connexion  of  Caleb  with  this  town  shows  that 
the  section  refers  to  the  post-exilic  location  of  his  clan,  for  the 
pre-exilic  days  found  the  clan  in  the  district  of  Hebron. 

the  father  of  Tekoa  :  i.  e.  of  the  population  of  the  district 
of  Tekoa. 

ii.  25-4T,  The  Descendants  of  JeraJimeel.  This  section  is  the 
first  direct  resumption  of  the  matter  represented  in  verse  9.  It 
seems  to  be  a  genealogical  representation  of  the  engrafting  of  the 
southern  Jerahmeelites  into  the  tribe  of  Judah  at  a  period  not 
much  later  than  David's  day  ;  it  shows  how  those  left  in  the  land 
at  the  Exile  were  driven  northward  by  pressure  from  the 
Edomites  or  how  those  who  returned  from  the  Exile  settled  in 
Northern  Judah)  ;  and,  when  the  cause  of  their  advent  to  the  new 
abode  was  forgotten,  it  sought  to  account  for  it  by  a  genealogical 
table.  Hence  verses  25-33  represent  a  fragment  rescued  from 
earlier  times  giving  the  habitat  of  the  clan  in  David's  dav,  whereas 


46  I   CHRONICLES  2.  26-35.     R  H^  R 

Hezron  were  Ram  the  firstborn,  and  Bunah,  and  Oren, 

36  and  Ozem,  Ahijah.     [H^]  And  Jerahmeel  had  another 

wife,  whose  name  was  Atarah;  she  was  the  mother  of 

27  Onam.     And  the  sons  of  Ram  the  firstborn  of  Jerahmeel 

28  were  Maaz,  and  Jamin,  and  Eker.     And  the  sons  of 
Onam   were   Shammai,    and    Jada :    and    the   sons    of 

29  Shammai ;  Nadab,  and  Abishur.     And  the  name  of  the 
wife  of  Abishur  was  Abihail ;  and  she  bare  him  Ahban,- 

30  and  Molid.     And  the  sons  of  Nadab  ;  Seled,  and  Ap- 

31  paim :  but  Seled  died  without  children.     And  the  sons 
ofAppaim;  Ishi.     And  the  sons  of  Ishi ;  Sheshan.    And 

32  the  sons  of  Sheshan ;  Ahlai.     And  the  sons  of  Jada  the 
brother  of  Shammai ;  Jether,  and  Jonathan  :  and  Jether 

33  died   without   children.      And   the   sons   of  Jonathan ; 
Peleth,  and  Zaza.     These  were  the  sons  of  Jerahmeel. 

34  [R]  Now  Sheshan  had  no  sons,  but  daughters.     And 
Sheshan  had  a  servant,  an  Egyptian,  whose  name  was 

35  Jarha.     And  Sheshan   gave  his   daughter  to  Jarha  his 


verses  34-41  are  intended  to  account  for  the  location  of  the  post- 
exilic  Jerahmeelites. 

ii.  25-33.    Pre-exilic  Jerahmeelites. 

25.  Ahijah:  a  feminine  name,  possibly  representing  Jerahmeel's 
wife.  As  it  is  disconnected  with  the  preceding  names,  a  pre- 
position may  have  fallen  out. 

30.  without  children :  the  expression  (c:!  «"?)  is  a  late  one 
and  proves  that  a  late  writer  has  worked  over  the  early  record. 

31.  Ahlai  is  evidently  not  a  son,  but  a  daughter:  cf.  verses 
34?  35-  She  is,  however,  reckoned  as  a  son  in  that  she  became 
the  heiress  of  Sheshan  and,  after  marrying  an  Egyptian  slave, 
founded  a  large  family. 

34-41.  Post-exilic  Jerahmeelites.  These  verses  form  an  ap- 
pendix giving  a  branch  of  Jerahmeel  (post- exilic)  from  Sheshan 
through  fifteen  generations.  It  cannot  be  by  the  same  hand  as 
verses  25-33,  ^o"*  ^^  former  fragment  is  brought  to  a  definite 
close  in  verse  33^.  These  verses  throw  an  interesting  sidelight 
on  the  relations  between  the  kingdoms  of  Judah  and  Egypt. 
When  an  honourable  family  forms  a  marriage  alliance  betweenj 


I  CHRONICLES  2.  36-47.     R  H^  R  H^  47 

servant  to  wife ;  and  she  bare  him  Attai.     And  Attai  36 
begat  Nathan,  and   Nathan  begat  Zabad ;   and   Zabad  37 
begat  Ephlal,  and  Ephlal  begat  Obed ;  and  Obed  begat  38 
Jehu,  and  Jehu  begat  Azariah ;  and  Azariah  begat  Helez,  39 
and   Helez  begat  Eleasah ;   and  Eleasah  begat  Sismai,  40 
and  Sismai  begat  Shallum  ;  and  Shallum  begat  Jekamiah,  41 
and  Jekamiah  begat  EHshama.     [H^]  And  the  sons  of  42 
Caleb  the  brother  of  Jerahmeel  were  Mesha  his  firstborn, 
which  was  the  father  of  Ziph ;  and  the  sons  of  Mareshah 
the  father  of  Hebron.     And  the  sons  of  Hebron  ;  Korah,  43 
and   Tappuah,  and    Rekem,  and  Shema.     And  Shema  44 
begat  Raham,  the  father  of  Jorkeam  ;  and  Rekem  begat 
Shammai.     And  the  son  of  Shammai  was  Maon  ;  and  45 
Maon  was   the   father  of  Beth-zur.     [R]  And   Ephah,  4^ 
Caleb's  concubine,  bare  Haran,  and  Moza,  and  Gazez : 
and  Haran  begat  Gazez.     [H^]  And  the  sons  of  Jahdai ;  47 

an  only  daughter  and  an  Egyptian  servant,  and  admits  thirteen 
generations  of  sons  to  full  tribal  privileges,  there  must  have  been 
considerable  good-will  between  the  two  peoples. 

{e)  ii.  42-55.  Fmiher  Descendants  of  Caleb.  We  seem  here  to 
have  in  verses  42-50*  the  original  and  pre-exilic  genealogy  of  the 
Calebites,  as  appears  from  their  association  with  Hebron,  where 
they  resided  in  David's  time.  On  the  other  hand,  verses  50^-55 
must  represent  the  post-exilic  locations.  The  clear  dividing-line 
of  verse  50  marks  the  occurrence  of  the  Exile. 

42.  He'oron :  the  whole  verse  is  obscure.  It  is  best  explained 
by  treating  Ziph,  Mareshah,  and  Hebron  as  local  names,  indicating 
the  pre-exilic  dwelling-places  of  the  Calebites.  Throughout  the 
section  clans  are  mingled  with  individuals  under  the  designation 
of  '  sons,'  so  that  it  is  scarcely  possible  to  say  when  the  one  is 
meant  and  when  the  other  ;  yet  almost  all  the  names  in  the  list 
may  be  referred  to  cities  of  the  south  in  the  mountains  of  Judah. 

44.  Achsah :  the  mention  of  the  daughter  of  Caleb  is  a  final 
proof  that  Caleb  'son  of  Hezron'  is  regarded  as  identical  with 
Caleb  'son  of  Jephunneh.'  The  chronicler  shows  us,  in  his 
genealogies  of  Caleb,  that  the  numerous  branches  of  the  Kenazites 
who  had  been  incorporated  with  Judah  all  traced  their  descent 
from  their  great  leader  who  joined  the  wandering  Hebrews  during 
the  Exodus-days. 


48    I    CHRONICLES  2.  48—8.   r.     H^  R  H^  R  Ch^ 

Regem,  and  Jotham,  and  Geshan,  and  Pelet,  and  Ephah, 

48  and   Shaaph.      [R]    Maacah,    Caleb's   concubine,    bare 

49  Sheber  and  Tirhanah.  [H']  She  bare  also  Shaaph  the 
father  of  Madmannah,  Sheva  the  father  of  Machbena, 
and  the  father  of  Gibea ;  and  the  daughter  of  Caleb  was 

50  Achsah.     These  were  the  sons   of  Caleb ;    the  son  of 

51  Hur,  the  firstborn  of  Ephrathah,  Shobal  the  father  of 
Kiriath-jearim ;    [R]    Salma  the   father  of  Beth-lehem, 

52  Hareph  the  father  of  Beth-gader.  And  Shobal  the  father 
of  Kiriath-jearim  had  sons;  Haroeh,  half  of  the  Menuhoth. 

53  And  the  families  of  Kiriath-jearim  ;  the  Ithrites,  and  the 
Puthites,  and  the  Shumathites,  and  the  Mishraites ;  of 

54  them  came  the  Zorathites  and  the  Eshtaolites.  The  sons 
of  Salma ;  Beth-lehem,  and  the  Netophathites,  Atroth- 
beth-Joab,   and  half  of  the   Manahathites,   the  Zorites. 

55  And  the  families  of  scribes  which  dwelt  at  Jabez;  the 
Tirathites,  the  Shimeatbites,  the  Sucathites.  These  are 
the  Kenites  that  came  of  Hammath,  the  father  of  the 
house  of  Rechab. 

3      [Ch'^]  Now  these  were  the  sons  of  David,  which  were 


50.  sons  of  Caleb :  the  verse  repeats,  with  verbal  changes,  the 
introductory  clause  of  verse  42  ;  thereupon  follows  the  list  of 
towns  and  districts  in  the  east  of  Judah  occupied  by  the  Calebites 
after  the  Exile.  . 

52.  Haroeh:  probably  a  textual  error  for  Reaiah  :  cf.  iv.  2. 

55.  families  of  scribes  represent  scribes  who  were  not  of 
the  Levitic  priesthood.  The  phrase  reminds  us  that  whole  families, 
and  even  clans,  commonly  formed  a  kind  of  trade-guild,  following 
the  same  occupation  from  generation  to  generation. 

These  are  the  Kenites  :  the  verse  is  very  obscure.  Possibly 
the  Kenites  were  also  called  Rechabites.  It  is  almost  certain 
that  Hammath  is  a  textual  error  ;  it  may  even  be  a  contraction 
for  two  words  which  denote  'the  father-in-law  of  Moses,'  who 
is  stated  in  Judges  i.  t6  to  have  been  a  Kenite. 

iii.    The  Descendants  of  David. 
The  chronicler  has,  thus  far,  traced  the  genealogies  of  the  twQ 


I    CHRONICLES  3.  2-9.     Ch=  H  Ch^  H  Ch^        49 

born  unto  him  in  Hebron  :  [H]  the  firstborn,  Amnon,  of 
Ahinoam  the  JezreeHtess  ;  the  second,  Daniel,  of  Abigail 
the  Carmelitess  ;  the  third,  Absalom  the  son  of  Maacah  2 
the  daughter   of  Talmai   king   of  Geshur;  the   fourth, 
Adonijah  the  son  of  Haggith ;  the  fifth,  Shephatiah  of  3 
Abital ;  the  sixth,  Ithream  by  Eglah  his  wife.     Six  were  4 
born  unto  him  in  Hebron;  and  there  he  reigned  seven 
years  and  six  months  :  and  in  Jerusalem  he  reigned  thirty 
and  three  years.     And  these  were  born  unto  him  in  Jeru-  5 
salem  :  Shimea,  and  Shobab,  and  Nathan,  and  Solomon, 
[Ch^]    four,    of   Bath-shua    the    daughter    of   Am  mi  el : 
[H]  and  Ibhar,  and  Elishama,  and  Eliphelet ;  and  Nogah,  6,  7 
and  Nepheg,  and  Japhia;   and  Elishama,   and  Eliada,  g 
and  Eliphelet,  nine.     [Ch^]  All  these  were  the  sons  of  9 
David,  beside  the  sons  of  the  concubines ;  and  Tamar 

divisions  of  the  tribe  of  Judah  founded  by  Caleb  and  Jerahmeel, 
whose  affinity  with  Hezron  was  currently  accepted.  He  now 
returns  to  the  royal  line  of  David,  which  he  has  traced  already 
from  Ram  to  Jesse,  and  continues  it  through  David  and  the  kings 
of  Judah  down  to  the  sons  of  Zerubbabel  of  the  sixth  generation. 
This  brings  down  the  genealogy  to  somewhere  about  350  b.  c. 

The  material  of  the  first  sixteen  verses  is  found  in  other  historic 
books  of  the  O.  T.,  thus  :  (i)  verses  1-9  =  2  Sam.  iii.  2-5,  v.  14-16, 
and  (2)  verses  10-16=1  and  2  Kings. 

(/)  iii.  1-9.  David^s  Sons.  Of  these,  six  were  born  during  the 
seven  and  a  half  years'  reign  in  Hebron,  and  thirteen  during  the 
thirty-three  years'  reign  in  Jerusalem. 

1.  Daniel :  called  Chileab  in  2  Sam.  iii.  3  :  where,  however, 
the  LXX  reads  Dalouia,  indicating  that  the  form  Daniel  is  correct 
though  varied  by  textual  errors. 

5.  these  were  born  ...  in  Jerusalem:  the  same  thirteen 
sons  are  named  in  xiv.  4-7,  with  orthographical  variations,  but 
the  parallel  passage  in  2  Samuel  (v.  14-16)  omits  the  names  of 
Eliphelet  and  Nogal.  In  our  list  the  name  of  Elishama  occurs 
twice,  the  former  being  a  scribal  error  for  the  Elishua  of  2  Sam. 
V.  14. 

8.  Eliada:  LXX; 6)  reads  Baaliada;  the  use  of  Baal,  'lord,' 
in  personal  names  was  regarded  as  improper  when  the  word  took 
on  a  heathen  signification  ;  hence  the  subsequent  change. 


50       I   CHRONICLES  3.  10-19.     Ch^  Ch  R^  Ch 

10  was  their  sister.    [Ch.]  And  Solomon's  son  was  Rehoboam, 

1 1  Abijah  his  son,  Asa  his  son,  Jehoshaphat  his  son ;  Joram 
13  his  son,  Ahaziah  his  son,  Joash  his  son ;  Amaziah  his  son, 

13  Azariah  his  son,  Jotham  his  son  ;  Ahaz  his  son,  Hezekiah 

14  his  son,  Manasseh  his  son ;  Amon  his  son,  Josiah  his  son. 

15  And   the   sons    of  Josiah;  the   firstborn   Johanan,  the 
second  Jehoiakim,  the  third  Zedekiah,  the  fourth  Shallum. 

16  [R^]  And   the   sons   of  Jehoiakim  :   Jeconiah   his   son, 

17  Zedekiah  his  son.     [Ch.]  And  the  sons  of  Jeconiah,  the 

18  captive  ;  Shealtiel  his  son,  and  Malchiram,  and  Pedaiah, 
and    Shenazzar,    Jekamiah,    Hoshama,    and    Nedabiah. 

19  And  the  sons  of  Pedaiah  ;  Zerubbabel,  and  Shimei :  and 


(g)  iii.  10-16.  TAe  royal  line  of  Judah.  The  direct  line  of 
succession  is  traced  from  Solomon  to  the  close  of  the  independent 
monarchy  under  Josiah.  The  usurping  queen,  Athaliah,  who 
was  not  of  David's  house,  is  omitted. 

15.  Johanan :  a  scribal  error  for  Jehoahaz.  Cf.  2  Kings 
xxiv.  30. 

16.  Zedekiah :  this  curious  mention  of  one  of  the  sons  of 
Jeconiah,  whereas  the  others  are  enumerated  separately  in  verse 
18,  may  imply  that  Zedekiah  was  not  involved  in  the  CaptivitJ^ 

{Jt)  iii.  17-24.  The  royal  line  after  the  Captivity.  This  section 
evidently  seeks  to  give  the  post-exilic  families  of  David's  line. 

17.  Jeconiah,  the  captive :  the  A.  V.  renders  the  descriptive 
noun  as  a  proper  name,  Assir,  which  is  certainly  incorrect ;  the 
definite  article  must  be  inserted  as  in  the  R.  V. 

18.  Shenazzar :  the  attempts  to  identify  this  son  of  Jeconiah 
with  Sheshbazzar  (Ezra  i.  8)  are  open  to  grave  objection. 

19.  Zeruhtoabel :  much  ingenuity  has  been  exercised  over  this 
genealogy.  Zerubbabel  is  here  represented  as  the  son  of  Pedaiah. 
whereas  he  is  represented  as  the  son  of  Shealtiel  in  Hag.  i.  i,  12  ; 
Ezra  iii.  2,  v.  2  ;  and  Matt.  i.  12.  To  reconcile  these  confused 
genealogies  the  supposition  is  made  that  there  was  a  lack  of  male 
issue  to  Shealtiel,  and  that  Pedaiah  contracted  a  Levirate  marriage 
by  which  Zerubbabel  was  born,  in  which  case  he  would  be 
reckoned  as  a  son  of  Shealtiel.  It  is  further  assumed  that  Shealtiel 
was  not  the  actual  son  of  Jeconiah,  but  rather  the  son  of  a  kinsman 
of  the  king,  named  Neri  (cf.  Luke  iii.  27),  who  in  his  turn  had  con- 
tracted a  Levirate  marriage  with  the  heiress  of  a  son  of  Jeconiah. 
This  line  of  argument,  while  full  of  suppositions  which  cannot  now 


I   CHRONICLES   3.  19.     Ch  51 

the   sons  of  Zerubbabel ;  Meshullam,  and  Hananiah  ; 


be  substantiated,  would  account  for  the  double  names  of  the  fathers 
of  Shealtiel  and  Zerubbabel. 

A  still  more  difficult  problem,  and  one  which  closely  concerns 
the  date  of  the  chronicler's  work,  is  that  of  the  number  of  genera- 
tions assigned  to  Zerubbabel.  There  have  been  critics  who  have 
treated  verse  21''  as  a  corruption  or  interpolation,  and  have 
actually  reduced  the  number  of  generations  between  Zerubbabel 
and  Hattush  to  two  ;  modern  scholars  generally  read  the  number 
as  six  ;  and  the  LXX  represents  it  as  eleven.  These  variations 
represent  the  period  covered  as  66",  180,  and  330  years  respectively. 
But  it  seems  to  be  indisputable  that  the  seven  names  of  verses 
17^,  18  all  stand  for  sons  of  Jeconiah.  Again,  verse  19  gives  the 
two  sons  of  Pedaiah,  and  also  two  sons  and  a  daughter  of 
Zerubbabel.  Further,  in  verse  20,  we  have  five  more  sons  of 
Zerubbabel,  separated  from  the  first  two  sons  by  the  emphatic 
position  given  to  the  name  of  their  sister.  Consequently  Pelatiah 
and  Jeshaiah,  the  grandsons  of  Zerubbabel  named  in  verse  21, 
would  be  contemporaries  of  Ezra,  who  returned  to  Jerusalem 
in  B.  c.  458.  But  verse  21  is  completed  by  the  mention  of  four 
families,  of  which  no  individual  members  are  named ;  these  are 
respectively  the  sons  of  Rephaiah,  Arnan,  Obadiah,  and  Shecaniah. 
Either  these  represent  four  brothers  of  Pelatiah  who  founded 
families,  or  they  represent  generations,  or  the  text  is  hopelessly 
corrupt.  There  is  no  doubt  that  there  is  a  certain  amount  of 
textual  corruption  ;  nor  can  we  now  restore  the  text  by  the  aid 
of  the  versions.  Even  if  the  ^  sons  of  Rephaiah  '  were  families  of 
the  royal  household  closely  connected  with  Zerubbabel,  we  can 
never  determine  what  the  connexion  was  with  any  degree  of 
certainty.  The  Hebrew  text,  however,  stood  in  its  present  form 
at  the  time  of  the  LXX  translation,  for  the  Greek  translators 
endeavoured  to  make  sense  out  of  it  by  rendering  it  as  of  four 
distinct  generations.  This  is  adequate  proof  that  confusion  existed 
as  early  as  b.  c.  200  ;  and  the  rendering  of  the  LXX  may  be  the 
traditional  explanation.  If  the  LXX  is  right,  we  have  eleven 
generations  named  from  Zerubbabel,  and  the  record  would  bring 
us  down  to  about  b.  c.  250.  But,  on  the  whole,  we  are  disposed 
to  read  verse  21  as  a  list  (if  it  be  allowed  to  stand  at  all  in  the 
text)  of  the  sons  of  Hananiah.  Then  verse  22  would  give  the 
third  and  fourth  generations  from  Zerubbabel. 

The  whole  framework  of  these  genealogies  is  so  loose,  the 
grouping  so  unreliable,  and  the  marks  of  kinship  either  so  often 
omitted  or  used  in  so  general  a  sense,  that  it  is  highly  probable 
that  the  exact  relationship  of  many  of  the  individuals  named  was 
a  matter  of  uncertainty  even  in  the  chronicler's  day  and  that  the 

£   2 


52  I    CHRONICLES  3.  20— 4.  i.     Ch  R^ 

20  and  Shelomith  was  their  sister  :  and  Hashubah,  and  Ohel, 

21  and  Berechiah,  and  Hasadiah,  Jushab-hesed,  five.  And 
thesonsofHananiah;  Pelatiah,  and  Jeshaiah  :  the  sons  of 
Rephaiah,  the  sons  of  Arnan,  the  sons  of  Obadiah,  the 

3  2  sons  of  Shecaniah.     And  the  sons  of  Shecaniah  ;  She- 

maiah :  and  the  sons  of  Shemaiah ;  Hattush,  and  Igal, 

23  and  Bariah,  and  Neariah,  and  Shaphat,  six.  And  the 
sons  of  Neariah ;  Elioenai,  and  Hizkiah,  and  Azrikam, 

24  three.  And  the  sons  of  Elioenai ;  Hodaviah,  and  Eliashib, 
and  Pelaiah,  and  Akkub,  and  Johanan,  and  Delaiah,  and 
Anani,  seven. 

4  [R^]  The  sons  of  Judah ;  Perez,  Hezron,  and  Carmi, 


compiler  could  do  no  more  than  group  names  which  belonged 
somewhere  in  the  family  tree  in  question.  Thus  it  seems  a 
warrantable  conclusion  that  there  existed  more  than  one  tradi- 
tional genealogy  of  the  sons  of  Zerubbabel,  which  was  accredited 
in  the  third  pre-Christian  century.  It  may  be  that  there  were 
breaks  in  the  direct  descent,  and  that  Levirate  marriages  account 
for  the  discrepancies,  and  it  is  noticeable  that  the  genealogy  of 
Jesus  in  Matt,  i  does  not  contain  a  single  descendant  of  Zerubbabel 
as  given  in  this  passage.  Evidently,  then,  the  genealogies  which 
close  the  chapter  are  fragmentary,  derived  from  sources  in  which 
the  links  were  not  freely  shown,  pieced  together  from  alternative 
lists,  and  of  doubtful  value  for  strict  chronological  reckonings. 

21.  LXX,  Pesh.,  Vulg.,  read  :  ^  And  the  sons  of  Hananiah  : 
Pelatiah,  and  Jeshaiah  his  son,  Rephaiah  his  son,  Arnan  his  son, 
Obadiah  his  son,  Shecaniah  his  son.' 

22.  the  sons  of  Shecaniah  .  .  .  six :  one  has  evidently 
fallen  out. 

(f)  iv.  1-23.  Various  Genealogies  of  Judah.  Quite  a  number 
of  branches  of  the  great,  composite  tribe  of  Judah  havt:  been 
passed  over  in  the  former  enumeration  of  the  families  belonging 
to  the  Calebite  and  Jerahmeelite  clans  and  to  the  royal  line. 
Hence  the  compiler,  seemingly  unable  to  form  an  orderly  record, 
yet  unwilling  to  omit  anything  that  appeared  of  value,  groups 
his  remaining  material  here  with  the  usual  loose  employment 
of  the  terms  of  relationship.  We,  consequently,  have  here  an 
appendix  of  families  which  somehow  or  other  possessed  a  claim 
to  be  considered  descendants  (i.  e.  'sons')  of  Judah.  Many  late 
expressions  occur  in  the  course  of  the  chapter,  and  there  is  no 


I   CHRONICLES  4.  2-10.     R^  H^  R^  H-  R^  H^     53 

and  Hur,  and  Shobal.     [H-]   And  Reaiah  the  son  of  2 
Shobal  begat  Jahath;  and  Jahath  begat  Ahumai  and 
Lahad.     [R-]  These  are  the  families  of  the  Zorathites. 
[H^]  And  these  were  the  sotis  of  the  father  of  Etam ;  3 
Jezreel,  and  Ishma,  and  Idbash :  and  the  name  of  their 
sister  was  Hazzelelponi :  and  Penuel  the  father  of  Gedor,  4 
and  Ezer  the  father  of  Hushah.     These  are  the  sons  of 
Hur,  [R2]  the  firstborn  of  Ephrathah,  the  father  of  Beth- 
lehem.    [H^]  And  Ashhur  the  father  of  Tekoa  had  two  5 
wives,    Helah    and    Naarah.     And    Naarah    bare   him  6 
Ahuzzam,  and  Hepher,  and  Temeni,  and  Haahashtari. 
These  were  the  sons  of  Naarah.     And  the  sons  of  Helah  7 
were  Zereth,  Izhar,  and  Ethnan.     And  Hakkoz  begat  8 
Anub,  and  Zobebah,  and  the  families  of  Aharhel  the  son 
of  Harum.     And  Jabez  was  more  honourable  than  his  9 
brethren  :  and  his  mother  called  his  name  Jabez,  saying, 
Because  I  bare  him  with  sorrow.     And  Jabez  called  on  10 
the  God  of  Israel,  saying,  Oh  that  thou  wouldest  bless 
me  indeed,  and  enlarge  my  border^  and  that  thine  hand 
might  be  with  me,  and  that  thou  wouldest  keep  me  from 


doubt  that  it  is  mainly  concerned  with  particulars  of  the  local 
distribution  of  certain  members  of  the  tribe  of  Judah  in  post-exilic 
times. 

1.  The  sons  of  Judah:  of  those  named  here  only  Perez  is 
really  a  son  of  Judah  ;  Hezron  is  a  grandson  (cf.  ii.  8)  ;  Carmi 
seems  to  be  the  grandson  of  Zerah,  brother  of  Perez  (cf.  Josh,  ii.  i)  ; 
and  Hur  and  Shobal  are  Calebites  (cf.  ii.  19  and  50). 

2.  Zorathites  :  the  verse  supplies  links  omitted  in  ii.  52-3. 

5-10.  Calebites  of  Tekoa.  The  section  refers  to  tribal  dwelling- 
places.  The  otherwise  unknown  incident  of  the  vow  of  Jabez 
(verses  9,  10)  stands  here  as  a  unique  illustration  of  the  kind  of  story 
which  had  acquired  popularity  and  religious  significance  in  the 
chronicler's  day.  The  reference  was  doubtless  familiar  to  all  his 
contemporaries  as  an  outstanding  case  of  answered  prayer  and  of 
consecration.  The  verses  may  be  a  fragment  excerpted  from  an 
extant  MS.  of  the  compiler's  day. 


54  I    CHRONICLES  4.  11-20.     H^  R^  H' 

evil,  that  it  be  not  to  my  sorrow  !     And  God  granted  him 

Ti  that  which  he  requested.     And  Chelub  the  brother  of 

Shiihah  begat  Mehir,  which  was  the  father  of  Eshton. 

12  And  Eshton  begat  Beth-rapha,  and  Paseah,  and  Tehinnah 
the  father  of  Ir-nahash.     These  are  the  men  of  Recah. 

13  And  the  sons  of  Kenaz ;  Othniel,  and  Seraiah  :  and  the 

14  sons  of  Othniel ;  Hathath.  [R^]  And  Meonothai  begat 
Ophrah :  and  Seraiah  begat  Joab  the  father  of  Ge-hara- 

15  shim;  for  they  were  craftsmen.  [H-|  And  the  sons  of 
Caleb  the  son  of  Jephunneh  ;  Iru,  Elah,  and  Naam  :  and 

1 6  the  sons  of  Elah ;  and  Kenaz.     And  the  sons  of  Jehallelel ; 

17  Ziph,  and  Ziphah,  Tiria,  and  Asarel.  And  the  sons  of 
Ezrah ;  Jether,  and  Mered,  and  Epher,  and  Jalon :  and 
she  bare  Miriam,  and  Shammai,  and  Ishbah  the  father 

18  of  Eshtemoa.  And  his  wife  the  Jewess  bare  Jered  the 
father  of  Gedor,  and  Heber  the  father  of  Soco,  and 
Jekuthiel  the  father  of  Zanoah.  And  these  are  the  sons 
of  Bithiah  the  daughter  of  Pharaoh,  which  Mered  took. 

19  And  the  sons  of  the  wife  of  Hodiah,  the  sister  of  Naham, 
were  the  father  of  Keilah  the  Garmite,  and  Eshtemoa  the 

20  Maacathite.  And  the  sons  of  Shimon ;  Amnon,  and 
Rinnah,  Ben-hanan,  and  Tilon.     And  the  sons  of  Ishi ; 

iv.  11-14.  Calebite  guild  of  smiths.  These  verses  constitute 
another  disconnected  fragment. 

13.  sons  of  Kenaz:  these  Kenazite  leaders  are  named  with 
very  loose  connecting  links,  yet  are  admitted  because  thej*  were 
able  to  maintain  affinity  with  Caleb's  branch  of  Judah. 

14.  Ge-harashim  :  the  name  means  '  Valley  of  the  craftsmen.* 

16-20,  Disconnected  genealogies.  All  we  can  say  of  these  frag- 
ments is  that  the  text  is  corrupt,  that  place-names  mingle  freely 
with  personal  names,  and  that  the  individuals  are  unknown  except 
by  name.  It  is  interesting,  however,  to  note  that  certain  pre-exilic 
'sons'  of  Caleb  traced  their  descent  to  a  daughter  of  one  of  the 
Pharaohs,  Bithiah,  while  others  of  the  same  clan  insisted  on  their 
Jewish  extraction.  This  is  one  more  illustration  of  the  close 
relations  between  the  clans  of  southern  Judah  and  Egypt. 


I   CHRONICLES  4.  21-25.     H^  R^  H  If        55 

Zoheth,  and  Ben-zoheth.     [R-]  The  sons  of  Shelah  the  21 
son  of  Judah ;  Er  the  father  of  Lecah,  and  Laadah  the 
father  of  Mareshah,  and  the  families  of  the  house  of  them 
that  wrought  fine  linen,  of  the  house  of  Ashbea ;   and  22 
Jokim,  and  the  men  of  Cozeba,  and  Joash,  and  Saraph, 
who  had  dominion  in  Moab,  and  Jashubi-lehem.     And 
the  records  are  ancient.     These  were  the  potters,  and  23 
the   inhabitants  of  Netaim   and   Gederah :    there   they 
dwelt  with  the  king  for  his  work. 

[H]  The  sons  of  Simeon ;  Nemuel,  and  Jamin,  Jarib,  24 
Zerah,  Shaul :   [H^]  Shallum  his  son,  Mibsam  his  son,  25 

iv.  21-23.   ^^'^  Descendants  of  Shelah. 

21.  fine  linen :  again  we  have  an  illustration  of  a  tribe-guild  of 
craftsmen. 

22.  dominion  in  Iffoato:  this  verse  is  the  sole  record  of  this 
instance  of  Jewish  immigration  into  Moab,  and  we  have  no  means 
of  assigning  a  date  to  it.  Probably  it  occurred  during  the  reign  of 
David,  at  which  time  Moab  was  subject  to  Judah.  The  second 
name,  Jashubi-lehem,  is  not  improbably  a  corruption  of  'they 
returned  to  Jerusalem  '  (jashubu  bethlehem). 

the  records  are  ancient :  the  phrase  is  an  indication  that 
we  have  here  the  work  of  a  late  scribe  :  and  verses  21-23  should 
almost  certainly  be  referred  to  a  redactor,  along  with  verses  s*', 
4'*,  and  14. 

23.  potters  :  we  cannot  decide  whether  this  refers  to  some  of 
the  families  named  in  verse  22.  although  it  is  more  probable  that  it 
is  a  general  reference  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  districts  of  Netaim 
and  Gederah.  On  the  other  hand  the  phrase  may  be  rendered, 
'those  that  dwelt  among  plantations  and  hedges,'  i.  e.  the  potters 
are  grouped  along  with  the  labourers  on  the  royal  demesnes. 

(3)  iv.  24-43.     27i<?  Tnbe  of  Simeon. 

The  section  is  a  record  of  one  of  the  families  of  Simeon.  It 
names  the  pre-Davidic  locations  of  the  clan  ;  it  then  narrates  how 
it  suffered  from  Philistine  and  Edomite  raids,  and  gives  the 
dwelling-places  of  the  post-exilic  remnants.  Some  of  the  names 
given  here  are  found  in  earlier  records  : — 

verse  24  =  Gen.  xlvi.  10  ;  Exod.vi,  15  ;  Num.  xxvi.  12. 

verses  28-33  ==  Josh.  xix.  a-8. 

iv.  24-27.  Various  Simeonites.  The  line  of  Shaul  is  here  traced 
for  six  generations  ;  but  it  is  expressly  stated  that  the  small  size  of 
the  tribe  of  Simeon  was  due  to  the  fact  that  the  other  branches 


56     I    CHRONICLES  4.  26-36.     H^  H  Ch=  H  Ch^  H^ 

26  Mishma  his  son.     And  the  sons  of  Mishma ;  Hammuel 

27  his  son,  Zaccur  his  son,  Shimei  his  son.  And  Shime 
had  sixteen  sons  and  six  daughters ;  but  his  brethren 
had  not  many  children,  neither  did  all  their  family  multi- 

28  ply,  like  to  the  children  of  Judah.     [H]  And  they  dwelt 

29  at  Beer-sheba,  and  Moladah,  and  Hazar-shual ;   and  at 

30  Bilhah,  and  at  Ezem,  and  at  Tolad ;  and  at  Bethuel,  and 

31  at  Hormah,  and  at  Ziklag;  and  at  Beth-marcaboth, 
and  Hazar-susim,  and  at  Beth-biri,  and  at  Shaaraim. 
[Ch^]  These  were  their  cities  unto  the  reign  of  David. 

32  [H]  And  their  villages  were  Etam,  and  Ain,  Rimmon, 

33  and  Tochen,  and  Ashan,  five  cities  :  and  all  their  villages 
that  were  round  about  the  same  cities,  unto  Baal. 
[Ch^]  These  were  their  habitations,  and  they  have  their 

34  genealogy.     [H^]    And   Meshobab,    and    Jamlech,   and 

35  Joshah  the  son  of  Amaziah ;  and  Joel,  and  Jehu  the 
son  of  Joshibiah,  the  son  of  Seraiah,  the  son  of  Asiel ; 

36  and  Elioenai,  and  Jaakobah,  and  Jeshohaiah,  and  Asaiah, 

failed  to  multiply.  The  names  Mibsam  and  Mishma  may  represent 
Ishmaelite  elements. 

2*7.  six  daugfliters  :  LXX  mentions  three  daughters  only. 

28-33.  Pre-Davidic  territory  of  Siineonites.  The  names  of  the 
towns  and  villages  of  Simeon  are  derived  from  the  Book  of  Joshua, 
and  the  discrepancies  are  evidently  due  to  textual  errors  and 
mistaken  verse-divisions.  They  all  lay  in  the  southern  division 
of  Judah.  It  seems  that  the  Simeonite  lands  were  gradually 
encroached  upon,  as,  for  instance,  Ziklag  was  conquered  by  the 
Philistines  and  then  passed  to  David  and  to  Judah.  This  pressure 
upon  Simeon  became  more  marked  after  the  time  of  David 
(cf.  verse  31). 

iv,  34-43.  Simeonite  emigration. 

34-41.  Raid  upon  Gedor.  Certain  Simeonite  families  increased 
to  such  an  extent  that  new  pasturages  became  essential  for  their 
herds  in  the  day  of  Hezekiah.  Thirteen  clansmen,  therefore, 
united  their  forces  and  raided  the  rich  and  peaceful  valley  of 
Gedor  (LXX  GerarV  which  lay  in  the  possession  of  certain 
Canaanite  tribes.     This-  valley  must  have   been  situated    to  the 


I  CHRONICLES  4.  37—0.  i.  H^  Ch  H^  Ch  H^  Ch     57 

and  Adiel,  and  Jesimiel,  and  Benaiah  ;  and  Ziza  the  son  37 
of  Shiphi,  the  son  of  Allon,  the  son  of  Jedaiah,  the  son 
of  Shimri^  the  son  of  Shemaiah  ;   [Ch]  these  mentioned  38 
by  name  were  princes  in  their  famiUes  :  and  their  fathers' 
houses  increased  greatly.     [H^]    And  they  went  to  the  39 
entering  in  of  Gedor,  even  unto  the  east  side  of  the  valley, 
to  seek  pasture  for  their  flocks.     And   they  found  fat  40 
pasture  and  good,  and  the  land  was  wide,  and  quiet,  and 
peaceable ;  [Ch]  for  they  that  dwelt  there  aforetime  were 
of  Ham.     [H^]  And  these  written  by  name  came  in  the  41 
days  of  Hezekiah  king  of  Judah,  and  smote  their  tents, 
and  the  Meunim  that  were  found  there,  and  destroyed  them 
utterly,  unto  this  day,  and  dwelt  in  their  stead  :  because 
there  was  pasture  there  for  their  flocks.     And  some  of  42 
them,  even  of  the  sons  of  Simeon,  five  hundred  men, 
went  to  mount  Seir,  having  for  their  captains  Pelatiah, 
and  Neariah,  and  Rephaiah,  and  Uzziel,  the  sons  of  Ishi. 
And  they  smote  the  remnant  of  the  Amalekites   that  43 
escaped,  and  dwelt  there,  unto  this  day. 

[Ch]  And  the  sons  of  Reuben  the  firstborn  of  Israel,  5 

south  of  Judah  ;  its  position  is  unknown  ;  but  here  the  Simeonite 
marauders  fell  upon  the  peaceful  inhabitants,  exterminated  them, 
and  took  their  lands.  The  incident  is  recorded  without  comment  by 
the  chronicler,  as  though  it  were  a  strictly  legitimate  act  towards  a 
heathen  tribe.  He  has  simply  copied  the  narrative  from  an  ancient 
source,  interjecting  explanatory  sentences  in  verses  38  and  40. 

42,  43.  Raid  upon  Seir.  Another  band  of  Simeonites,  506 
strong,  dispossessed  the  Amalekite  inhabitants  of  Edom.  When 
the  chronicler  sa\'s  they  dwelt  there  '  unto  this  day '  he  is 
evidently  merely  incorporating  the  words  of  his  source,  for  the 
Simeonites  had  been  expelled  from  their  stolen  lands  long  before 
the  chronicler  wrote.  It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  point  out  how 
closely  the  style  and  material  of  these  narratives  harmonizes 
with  the  Book  of  Judges. 

(4)  V.  1-26.    TJie  Trans-Jordanic  Tribes. 

(a)  v.  i-io.    T/ie  Tribe  of  Reuben. 

1,  2.  These  verses  form  an  ititrodvtction  in  which  the  chronicler 


58  I   CHRONICLES  5.  2-9.     Ch 

(for  he  was  the  firstborn  ;  but,  forasmuch  as  he  defiled  his 
father's  couch,  his  birthright  was  given  unto  the  sons 
of  Joseph  the  son  of  Israel ;  and  the  genealogy  is  not  to 

2  be  reckoned  after  the  birthright.     For  Judah  prevailed 
above  his  brethren,  and  of  him  came  the  prince ;  but  the 

3  birthright  was  Joseph's :)  the  sons  of  Reuben  the  first- 
born of  Israel ;  Hanoch,  and  Pallu,  Hezron,  and  Carmi. 

4  The  sons  of  Joel ;  Shemaiah  his  son,  Gog  his  son,  Shimei 

5  his  son ;  Micah  his  son,  Reaiah  his  son,  Baal  his  son ; 

6  Beerah  his  son,  whom  Tilgath-pilneser  king  of  Assyria 
carried  away  captive :  he  was  prince  of  the  Reubenites. 

7  And  his  brethren  by  their  families,  when  the  genealogy 
of  their  generations  was  reckoned ;  the  chief,  Jeiel,  and 

S  Zechariah,  and  Bela  the  son  of  Azaz,  the  son  of  Shema, 

the  son  of  Joel,  who  dwelt  in  Aroer,  even  unto  Nebo  and 

9  Baal-meon  :  and  eastward  he  dwelt  even  unto  the  entering 


explains  why  Joseph  was  not  reckoned  as  the  firstborn  of  Israel 
even  when  the  birthright  had  been  transferred  to  him  from  Judah. 
Judah  became  numerically  strong  enough  to  assert  the  tribal 
supremacy.  This  supremacy  was  consequently  confirmed  by  the 
fact  that  'the  prince,'  b}--  whom  is  evidently  meant  David  and  the 
royal  line,  sprang  from  Judah.  The  Syriac  version  has  a  remark- 
able addition  here  :  'And  by  waj'  of  both  these  came  the  blessings 
upon  all  the  tribes  of  Israel  :  of  Judah  is  the  king,  the  Messias, 
sprung,  and  Joseph  was  invested  with  the  birthright.'  The  hand 
of  a  Christian  Jew  of  Syria  is  very  readily  discerned  in  this 
gloss. 

V.  3-6.  The  four  sons  of  Reuben  are  named  in  Gen.  xlvi.  9,  but 
we  nowhere  find  information  as  to  whose  line,  of  the  four,  is  traced 
through  Joel  to  the  princely  Beerah  of  the  days  of  the  Assyrian 
raids. 

6.  Tilg'ath-pilneser  :  the  chronicler  invariably  misspells  this 
name.  The  correct  form  is  given  in  Kings,  as  Tiglath-Pileser  ;  cf. 
note  to  verse  26. 

7-9,  After  enumerating  the  leading  clansmen  related  to  Beerah, 
the  chronicler  defines  the  position  of  the  grazing  lands  of  Bela. 
These  comprised  a  tract  of  country  stretching  eastward  from  the 
Dead  Sea  and  the  Jordan  Valley  towards  the  Syrian  desert  and 


I    CHRONICLES  o.  10-16.     Ch  59 

in  of  the  wilderness  from  the  river  Euphrates :  because 
their  cattle  were  multipHed  in  the  land  of  Gilead.     And  10 
in  the  days  of  Saul  they  made  war  with  the  Hagrites,  who 
fell  by  their  hand  :  and  they  dwelt  in  their  tents  through- 
out all  the  la7id  east  of  Gilead. 

And  the  sons  of  Gad  dwelt  over  against  them,  in  the  11 
land    of   Bashan    unto   Salecah :    Joel    the    chief,    and  12 
Shapham  the  second,  and  Janai,  and  Shaphat  in  Bashan  : 
and  their  brethren  of  their  fathers'  houses  ;  Michael,  and  13 
Meshullam,  and  Sheba,  and  Jorai,  and  Jacan,  and  Zia^  and 
Eber,  seven.     These  were  the  sons  of  Abihail  the  son  of  14 
Huri,  the  son  of  Jaroah,  the  son  of  Gilead,  the  son  of 
Michael,  the  son  of  J  ehishai,  the  son  of  Jahdo,  the  son  of 
Buz;   Ahi  the  son  of  x^bdiel,  the  son   of  Guni,  chief  15 
of  their  fathers'  houses.     And  they  dwelt  in  Gilead  in  16 
Bashan,  and   in   her  towns,  and   in  all  the  suburbs  of 

the  Euphrates,  and  extending  from  the  level  of  the  river  Arnon  on 
the  south  to  Mount  Nebo  and  Heshbon  on  the  north.  But  the 
clansmen  evidently  grazed  their  flocks  northward  into  the  pastures 
of  Reubenite  Gilead. 

10.  war  with  the  Hagrites.  The  Hagrites  were  a  pastoral 
people,  tracing  their  half-Egyptian,  half-Israelite  origin  to  Hagar  ; 
they  wandered  over  the  grazing  lands  and  deserts  east  of  trans- 
Jordanic  Israel.  The  brief  reference  here  made  to  the  campaign 
in  which  the  Reubenites  of  Bela's  clans  dispossessed  them  of 
eastern  Gilead  in  the  days  of  Saul  probably  refers  to  the  same  war 
as  that  recorded  in  verses  18-22. 

ih)  11-17.  The  Tnbe  of  Gad.  This  tribe  occupied  the  lands 
north  of  Reuben  as  far  as  the  sea  of  Galilee  and  eastward  from 
the  Jordan  to  the  desert.  Four  chieftains  of  Bashan  are  named 
(verse  12)  ;  and  then  follow  seven  others  (verse  13%  whose 
genealogy'  is  traced  through  eight  generations  of  otherwise  un- 
knoM'n  ancestors  to  the  head  of  their  clan,  one  Guni.  Not  onlj' 
did  thej^  occupy  the  towns  of  Gilead,  but  they  pressed  north  of  the 
river  Yarmuk  into  Bashan  and  southward  to  the  Moabite  uplands 
of  Sharon  (see  Hist.  Geog.  by  G.  A.  Smith,  ch.  xxv.  §  4^  And, 
lastly,  we  are  informed  that  the  genealogies  of  these  clans  were 
compiled  in  the  days  of  Jotham  of  Judah  and  Jeroboam  of  Israel, 


6o  I   CHRONICLES  5.  17-20.     Ch 

17  Sharon,  as  far  as  their  borders.  All  these  were  reckoned 
by  genealogies  in  the  days  of  Jotham  king  of  Judah,  and 
in  the  days  of  Jeroboam  king  of  Israel. 

18  The  sons  of  Reuben,  and  the  Gadites,  and  the  half 
tribe  of  Manasseh,  of  valiant  men,  men  able  to  bear 
buckler  and  sword,  and  to  shoot  with  bow,  and  skilful 
in  war,  were  forty  and  four  thousand  seven  hundred  and 

19  threescore,  that  were  able  to  go  forth  to  war.  And  they 
made  war  with  the  Hagrites,  with  Jetur,  and  Naphish,  and 

20  Nodab.     And  they  were  helped  against  them,  and  the 

Some  difficulty  is  created  by  this  statement.  According  to  the 
present  chronology  of  the  Book  of  Kings,  Jotham  ascended  the 
throne  of  Judah  twenty-five  years  after  the  death  of  Jeroboam  II 
of  Israel.  If  this  be  correct,  our  text  (verse  17)  must  refer  to  two 
compilations  of  Gadite  records.  But  there  are  hopeless  incon- 
sistencies in  the  chro  nology  of  Kings  vi^hich  require  to  be  eliminated. 
The  only  satisfactory  harmony  is  that  presented  in  the  volume  of 
the  Century  Bible  on  Kings  (pp.  38-47,  Skinner).  According  to 
this  solution.  Jotham's  reign  is  so  reckoned  that  the  first  ten  years 
of  it  were  really  a  regency  during  the  lifetime  of  his  father  Uzziah 
and  only  the  last  five  years  were  a  full  kingship.  At  the  same 
time  the  only  possible  way  of  producing  a  harmony  between  the 
chronological  notices  of  the  Book  of  Kings  and  the  references  of 
the  Assyrian  monuments,  while  also  restoring  consistency  to  the 
Hebrew  history,  would  be  to  make  the  latter  part  of  the  reign  of 
Jeroboam  II  synchronize  with  the  regency  of  Jotham.  If  this  is 
done,  the  census  alluded  to  in  our  narrative  must  have  fallen  during 
this  period,  i.  e.  between  749  and  745  b.  c. 

v,  18-22.  Second  version  of  the  Hagrite  war.  This  narrative 
seems  to  be  an  enlarged  version  of  the  campaign  recorded  in 
verses  7-10  ;  it  was  probably  derived  from  a  different  source. 
In  this  case  we  read  of  a  full  mustering  of  the  trans-Jordanic 
tribes  to  urge  war  upon  the  Hagrites.  Not  improbably  the  cause 
was  an  earlier  raid  of  the  Hagrites  or  a  threatened  danger  which 
called  for  self-defence.  The  numbers  of  the  warriors  are  so  large 
that  one  suspects  an  error  has  crept  into  the  figures  ;  but  the 
events  are  vividly  described.  In  the  first  shock  of  battle  between 
the  '  valiant  men  '  of  Israel  and  the  Hagrites  of  'Jetur  and  Naphish 
and  Nodab  '  the  uncertainty  of  the  issue  led  the  Hebrews  to  cry 
to  God  for  aid.  The  result  was  a  complete  victory  for  Israel. 
The  chronicler  adds  the  note,  '  the  war  was  of  God,'  thus  giving 
an  illustration  of  his  customary  reverent  reading  of  history.     The 


I   CHRONICLES  5.  21-26.     Ch  61 

Hagrites  were  delivered  into  their  hand,  and  all  that  were 
with  them  :  for  they  cried  to  God  in  the  battle,  and 
he  was  intreated  of  them  ;  because  they  put  their  trust  in 
him.  And  they  took  away  their  cattle;  of  their  camels  21 
fifty  thousand,  and  of  sheep  two  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand,  and  of  asses  two  thousand,  and  of  men  an 
hundred  thousand.  For  there  fell  many  slain,  because  22 
the  war  was  of  God.  And  they  dwelt  in  their  stead  until 
the  captivity. 

And  the  children  of  the  half  tribe  of  Manasseh  dwelt  23 
in  the  land :  they  increased  from  Bashan  unto  Baal- 
hermon  and  Senir  and  mount  Hermon.  And  these  were  24 
the  heads  of  their  fathers'  houses ;  even  Epher,  and  Ishi, 
and  Eliel,  and  Azriel,  and  Jeremiah,  and  Hodaviah,  and 
Jahdiel,  mighty  men  of  valour,  famous  men,  heads  of 
their  fathers'  houses. 

And  they  trespassed  against  the  God  of  their  fathers,  25 
and  went  a  whoring  after  the  gods  of  the  peoples  of  the 
land,  whom  God  destroyed  before  them.     And  the  God  26 
of  Israel  stirred  up  the  spirit  of  Pul  king  of  Assyria,  and 

nature  of  the  booty  taken  indicates  the  nomadic  character  of  the 
enemy  (verse  21).  And  the  decisive  nature  of  the  engagement 
is  evident  from  the  fact  that  the  tribes  held  the  conquered  lands 
until  the  Captivity. 

21.  fifty  thousand:  LXX  reads  '  five  thousand.' 

23,  24.  Trans-Jordanic  Manasseh.  The  half-tribe  of  Manasseh 
enjoyed  unhindered  grov^th.  Its  territory  extended  from  the 
river  Yarmuk  northwards  towards  the  Lebanon  valley  and  the 
mountain  range  of  Hermon.  The  names  of  seven  tribal  chieftains 
are  here  recorded. 

V.  25,  26.  The  Assyrian  Captivity.  The  two  concluding  verses 
of  the  chapter  refer  to  the  entire  trans- Jordanic  population. 
Briefly  they  tell  of  the  lapse  into  idolatry  and  the  subsequent 
deportation  of  the  two  and  a  half  tribes  by  the  Assyrian  con- 
querors ;  and  it  is  evident  that  the  chronicler  recognizes  that  the 
catastrophe  is  an  act  of  Divine  retribution. 

26.  Pul  and  Tilgrath-pilneser  are  here  represented  as  two 


6i  I   CHRONICLES  6.  i.     Ch  R 

the  spirit  of  Tilgath-pihieser  king  of  Assyria,  and  he 
carried  them  away,  even  the  Reubenites,  and  the  Gadites, 
and  the  half  tribe  of  Manasseh,  and  brought  them  unto 
Halah,  and  Habor,  and  Hara,  and  to  the  river  of  Gozan, 
unto  this  day. 
6      [R]  The  sons  of  Levi ;  Gershon,  Kohath,  and  Merari. 

different  Assyrian  monarchs.  If  this  is  the  meaning  of  the 
chronicler,  he  is  in  error,  Babylonian  inscriptions  show  that 
the  two  names  refer  to  the  same  person  and  that  his  real  name 
was  Pulu.  It  is  not  improbable  that  he  assumed  the  name  of 
Tiglath-Pileser  (always  misspelt  by  our  author)  on  his  usurpation 
of  the  Assyrian  throne  in  745  b.  c,  (cf.  Schrader,  Keilinschnftlichc 
Bibliothek,  1889,  &c.).  The  satne  error  concerning  the  monarch 
indicated  by  the  two  names  is  found  in  2  Kings  xv.  19,  29.  Under 
the  successors  of  the  warlike  Assyrian  monarch  Shalmaneser  II, 
the  northern  empire  on  the  Tigris  had  gradually  shrunk ;  but 
Tiglath-Pileser  III  (745-727  b.  c.)  proved  a  powerful  ruler  and 
pushed  his  arms  as  far  as  the  boundaries  of  Egypt.  After  sub- 
duing Babylonia,  he  responded  to  the  call  of  Ahaz  of  Judah  to  aid 
him  against  Pekah  of  Israel  and  Rezin  of  Damascus.  In  the 
ensuing  campaign  (734  B.C.),  the  Assyrian  monarch  entered 
Samaria  and  subsequently  carried  away  captive  the  tribes  which 
dwelt  to  the  east  of  the  Jordan. 

Halah,  and  Habor,  and  Hara,  and  the  river  of  Gozan :  it 
seems  evident  that  Hara  is  a  corrupted  form  of  some  longer  name 
(cf.  2  Kings  xvii.  6),  and  the  usual  critical  emendation  of  the  text 
is  to  be  adopted  :  '  In  Halah  and  by  Habor  the  river  of  Gozan  and 
in  Harhar  a  city  of  Media.'  Gozan  is  the  Assyrian  Guzanu,  a 
province  bordering  on  Media.  Its  chief  river  was  the  Habor,  now 
the  Habur. 

(,5)  vi.    Levitical  Genealogies. 

In  the  Hebrew  text  the  first  fifteen  verses  of  our  ch.  vi  are 
reckoned  as  belonging  to  ch.  v.  They  constitute  a  corrupt  and 
fragmentar}'  record  and  are  evidently  the  work  of  a  later  redactor 
of  the  Chronicles.  The  chapter  gives  two  genealogies  of  the  high- 
priestly  line  from  Aaron  to  Ahimaaz,  and  also  devotes  two  sections 
to  the  descendants  of  Levi. 

(a)  vi.  1-15.  The  High-Pyicstly  line.  This  is  traced  from  Levi 
down  to  the  days  of  the  Exile.  From  Eleazar,  the  divinely  selected 
inheritor  of  the  prerogatives  of  Aaron,  there  are  twenty-two 
generations  named  ;  but  it  is  questionable  whether  twenty-two 
generations  are  sufficient  for  such  a  period.     It  is  not  possible 


I   CHRONICLES  6.  2-6.     R  65 

And  the  sons  of  Kohath  ;  Amram,  Izhar,  and  Hebron,  3 
and  Uzziel.  And  the  children  of  Amram ;  Aaron,  and  3 
Moses,  and  Miriam.  And  the  sons  of  Aaron ;  Nadab 
and  Abihu,  Eleazarand  Ithamar.  Eleazar  begat  Phinehas,  4 
Phinehas  begat  Abishua ;  and  Abishua  begat  Bukki,  and  5 
Bukki  begat  Uzzi ;  and  Uzzi  begat  Zerahiah,  and  Zerahiah  6 

to  establish  the  exact  dates  of  early  Hebrew  history  from  any 
data  now  at  our  disposal  independently  of  the  O.  T.  But  there 
was  a  belief  prevalent  at  the  time  of  the  composition  of  the  Book 
of  the  Kings  (i  Kings  vi.  i)  according  to  which  480  years  elapsed 
between  the  Exodus  and  the  building  of  the  Temple.  At  that 
time  the  Temple  had  already  ceased  to  exist ;  and,  even  if  we 
could  place  confidence  in  a  date  appearing  so  late  in  history,  still 
there  would  be  an  artificiality  about  the  period  containing  exactly 
twelve  generations  of  forty  years  each,  which  indicates  that  the 
historian  was  speaking  in  round  numbers  and  in  traditional 
phraseology.  But,  if  we  provisionally  accept  this  length  of  the 
period,  it  gives  us  440  years  from  the  death  of  Aaron  to  the  build- 
ing of  the  Temple.  Now  the  Temple  was  commenced  in  Solomon's 
fourth  year,  i.  e.  in  967  b.  c,  according  to  our  most  reliable 
chronological  reckoning.  And  from  that  date  to  the  Captivity 
of  587  B.  c.  there  would  be  a  period  of  380  years.  Thus  from 
Aaron  to  Jehozadak  we  have  820  years  for  twenty-two  genera- 
tions, which  gives  thirty-seven  years  to  each  generation.  This 
seems  to  be  an  abnormally  long  average  of  life  for  the  high-priests 
of  eight  centuries  ;  and,  even  if  we  could  accept  this,  there  are 
other  grounds  upon  which  we  are  compelled  to  regard  the 
genealogy  in  question  as  incomplete.  For  instance,  the  chronicler 
evidently  implies  that  there  was  an  unbroken  occupation  of  the 
Aaronic  priesthood  by  the  lineal  descendants  of  Eleazar ;  but  this 
is  not  substantiated  by  statements  found  elsewhere  in  the  O.  T. 
We  learn,  on  the  contrary,  that  the  house  of  Eli,  which  traced  its 
descent  to  Ithamar  (cf.  i  Chron.  xxiv.  5),  held  the  office  for  manj- 
years;  and  the  Books  of  Samuel  and  Kings^  supply  us  with  the  follow- 
ing names  in  Ithamar s  Une  of  high-priests :  Eli  (Phinehas),  Ahitub, 
Ahijah  (called  also  Ahimelech),  Abiathar  (deposed  by  Solomon). 
Hence  we  are  led  to  inquire  whether  the  twenty-two  names  in 
the  chronicler's  list  represent  actual  holders  of  the  office  or  not. 
The  explanation  given  by  Josephus  {Ant.  v.  11.  5)  seems  to  be 
trustworthy.    He  tells  us  that  the  office  remained  in  the  possession 

'  Cf.  1  Sam.   ii.   20,  iv.  11,    xiv.   3,   xxii.  9,    ii>  20j    i  Kings  ii. 
26,  27,  35. 


64  I    CHRONICLES  6.  7-9.     R 

7  begat  Meraioth ;  Meraioth  begat  Amariah,  and  Amariah 

8  begat   Ahitub ;  and   Ahitub   begat   Zadok,    and   Zadok 

9  begat  Ahimaaz ;  and  Ahimaaz  begat  Azariah,  and  Azariah 


of  the  house  of  Eleazar  until  the  days  of  Uzzi,  but  that,  for  some 
unknown  reason,  instead  of  passing  down  to  Uzzi's  son  Zerahiah, 
it  was  then  transferred  to  Eli,  the  claimant  of  Ithamar's  line. 
From  Eli  the  dignity  passed  down  through  four  generations, 
Phinehas  (who  never  actually  executed  its  duties),  Ahitub,  Ahijah, 
to  Abiathar.  But  meantime  the  legal  line  of  the  high-priests, 
descended  from  Eleazar,  which  had  always  claimed  the  office  and 
had  possibly  performed  some  of  its  functions,  had  been  represented 
by  Zerahiah,  Meraioth,  Amariah,  Ahitub,  and  Zadok  (verses  51-53). 
When,  however,  Saul  massacred  the  priests  of  Nob  (i  Sam.  xxii), 
the  only  man  who  escaped  was  Ahijah,  and,  as  he  followed  the 
fortunes  of  David  henceforth,  the  office  of  high-priest  seems  to 
have  been  transferred  to  the  contemporary  representative  of 
ICleazars  house,  viz.  Ahitub.  This  would  account  for  the  double 
high-priesthood  of  David's  day,  viz,  that  of  Zadok  and  Abiathar, 
which  was  terminated  by  Solomon.  According  to  this  explanation, 
three  of  those  named  in  the  chronicler's  list,  viz.  Zerahiah, 
Meraioth,  and  Amariah,  did  not  enjoy  the  highest  ecclesiastical 
office  at  all.  Thus  we  discover  that  the  aim  of  the  passage  is 
merely  to  trace  the  connexion  between  Jehozadak  and  Eleazar. 

But  there  are  yet  other  proofs  of  the  incompleteness  of  the 
list.  Not  only  do  the  names  from  Eleazar  to  Uzzi  appear  too  few 
for  the  period  from  the  Exodus  to  Samuel  (i.  e.  five  names  for 
a  period  probably  covering  300  years),  but  it  is  certain  that 
several  names  have  been  omitted  between  Zadok  and  Jehozadak. 
We  have  no  mention  of  Jehoiada  (2  Kings  xi)  or  of  Urijah  (2  Kings 
xvi.  10  ff.)'  Then  are  we  to  accept  the  threefold  recurrence  of  the 
name  of  Azariah  as  representing  the  priests  so  named  under 
Solomon,  Uzziah,  and  Hezekiah?  It  is  probable  that  Amariah 
(verse  11)  is  the  priest  mentioned  in  2  Chron.  xix.  11  in  the  reign 
of  Jehoshaphat  (874-850  b,  c.)  ;  and,  in  that  case,  the  Hilkiah  of 
verse  13,  four  generations  later,  can  hardly  be  the  Hilkiah  of 
Josiah's  reign  (637-607  b.  c.)  ;  nor  could  his  son  Azariah  (verse 
13)  be  the  high-priest  who  officiated  under  Hezekiah  (720-692  b.  c.) 
We  are,  therefore,  forced  to  assume  that  some  links  have  been 
omitted.  And  this  assumption  is  strengthened  by  the  fact  that 
while  only  eleven  generations  are  assigned  to  Zadok's  line  between 
Solomon  and  the  Captivity,  seventeen  are  assigned  to  David's  line 
during  the  same  period. 

7,  8.  Amariah  .  .  .  Ahitub  .  .  .  Zadok :  note  the  suspicious  re- 
currence of  these  names  in  verses  11,  12. 


I   CHRONICLES  6.  10-21.     R  H  H^  65 

begat  Johanan  ;  and  Johanan  begat  Azariah,  (he  it  is  that  10 
executed  the  priest's  office  in  the  house  that  Solomon 
built  in  Jerusalem  :)  and  Azariah  begat  Amariah,  and  1 1 
Amariah  begat  Ahitub;  and  Ahitub  begat  Zadok,  and  12 
Zadok  begat  Shallum;  and  Shallum  begat  Hilkiah,  and  13 
Hilkiah  begat  Azariah;  and  Azariah  begat  Seraiah,  and  14 
Seraiah  begat  Jehozadak;  and  Jehozadak  went  mfo  1^ 
captivity^  when  the  Lord  carried  away  Judah  and 
Jerusalem  by  the  hand  of  Nebuchadnezzar. 

[H]  The  sons  of  Levi ;  Gershom,  Kohath,  and  Merari.  16 
And  these  be  the  names  of  the  sons  of  Gershom  ;  Libni  17 
and  Shimei.  And  the  sons  of  Kohath  were  Amram,  and  18 
Izhar,  and  Hebron,  and  Uzziel.  The  sons  of  Merari ;  19 
Mahli  and  Mushi.  And  these  are  the  families  of  the 
Levites  according  to  their  fathers'  houses.  [H^]  Of  20 
Gershom ;  Libni  his  son,  Jahath  his  son,  Zimmah  his  son  ; 
Joah  his  son,  Iddo  his  son,  Zerah  his  son,  Jeatherai  his  son.  21 

10.  executed  the  priest's  office.  The  reference  may  be  to  the 
incident  of  King  Uzziah's  usurpation  of  the  priestly  rights :  cf. 
2  Chron.  xxvi.  17. 

15.  by  the  hand  of  Nebuchadnezzar.  Nebuchadnezzar  (604- 
561  B.  c.)  was  the  second  monarch  of  the  neo-Babylonian  empire. 
He  had  inflicted  a  crushing  defeat  upon  Necho,  the  reigning 
Pharaoh,  at  Carchemish  in  605  b.  c.  On  coming  to  the  throne  he 
displayed  great  zeal  in  beautifying  the  city  of  Babylon  and  in 
repairing  its  ancient  temples.  In  597  b.  c.  he  crushed  the  second 
rev'olt  of  the  Jews  under  Jehoiakim  and  carried  many  captives  from 
Jerusalem  to  Babylonia.  In  588  b.  c.  Zedekiah  revolted  against 
him,  and  a  fierce  campaign  followed,  in  which  Jerusalem  fell,  and 
the  great  Captivity  ensued  in  587  B.C. 

(6)  vi.  16-30,  Levitical  Genealogies.  This  and  the  following 
genealogies  of  the  chapter  are  mainly  derived  from  the  Pentateuch 
(cf.  Exod.  vi.  16-24  j  Num.  iii.  17-20). 

16.  The  sons  of  Levi  are  given  here  as  in  verse  i,  but  the 
record  of  verse  2  is  expanded  in  verses  17  and  19  by  the  addition 
of  the  sons  of  Gershom  and  Merari. 

20-30.  Lines  of  Gershom,  Kohath^  and  Merari.  First  we  have 
seven  descendants  of  Gershom  :  then  follow  three  confused  and  dis- 


66  I   CHRONICLES  6.  22-32.     H-^  Ch 

22  The  sons  of  Kohath ;  Amminadab  his  son,  Korah  his  son, 

23  Assir  his  son ;  Elkanah  his  son,  and  Ebiasaph  his  son, 

24  and  Assir  his  son ;  Tahath  his  son,  Uriel  his  son,  Uzziah 
35  his  son,  and  Shaul  his  son.  And  the  sons  of  Elkanah  ; 
26  Amasai,  and  Ahimoth.  As  for  Elkanah  :  the  sons  of 
2  7  Elkanah ;  Zophai  his  son,  and  Nahath  his  son ;  Eliab  his 

28  son,  Jeroham  his  son,  Elkanah  his  son.     And  the  sons  of 

29  Samuel;  the  firstborn y^^/,  and  the  second  Abiah.     The 
sons  of  Merari;  Mahli,  Libni  his  son,  Shimei  his  son, 

30  Uzzah  his  son ;  Shimea  his  son,  Haggiah  his  son,  Asaiah 
his  son. 

31  [Ch]  And  these  are  they  whom  David  set  over  the 
service  of  song  in  the  house  of  the  Lord,  after  that  the 

32  ark  had  rest.     And  they  ministered  with  song  before  the 

connected  lists  of  the  descendants  of  Kohath,  in  which  Amminadab 
probably  represents  the  Izhar  of  Exod.  vi.   18,  in  that  his  line  is 
unmistakably  traced   here  ;    and,  lastly,  we  have  the  names  of 
seven  descendants  of  Merari  which  are  given  nowhere  else. 
28.  Samuel :  historically  an  Ephraimite  :  of.  1  Sam.  i.  i. 

(c)  31-48.  Pedigree  of  David^s  chief  musicians.  The  three 
musical  guilds  of  Heman,  Asaph,  and  Ethan  (  — Jeduthan)  are 
traced  back  to  their  common  Levitic  origin,  and  the  genealogies 
are  prefaced  and  concluded  with  references  to  the  musical  services 
of  the  Temple. 

31.  after  that  the  ark  had  rest:  the  allusion  is  to  the  bring- 
ing up  of  the  Ark  to  Jerusalem,  narrated  in  2  Sam.  vi.  In  the 
early  narrative  we  read  of  the  employment  of  sacred  music  in 
the  ceremony  of  transporting  the  Ark,  and  the  chronicler  has 
historic  grounds  for  tracing  the  establishment  of  the  musical  services 
of  the  sanctuary  back  to  David's  daj'' ;  but  he  presents  the  case  in 
a  light  not  warranted  by  the  earlier  histories,  when  he  represents 
the  full  Levitic  musical  organization  of  his  day  as  having  existed 
from  the  time  of  David.  In  all  probability  it  passed  through  a  long 
course  of  gradual  development,  and  only  reached  its  final  perfec- 
tion under  Ezra. 

the  ark :  cf.  note  on  xiii.  3. 

32.  they  ministered  with  song.  The  three  choirs  were  so 
arranged  that  Heman  conducted  the  central  choir,  Asaph  that  on 
the  right,  and  Ethan  that  on  the  left.     It  is  improbable  that  these 


I    CHRONICLES  6.  33-49.     Ch  67 

tabernacle  of  the  tent  of  meeting,  until  Solomon  had  built 
the  house  of  the  Lord  in  Jerusalem  :  and  they  waited  on 
their  otTfice  according  to  their  order.     And  these  are  they  33 
that    waited,    and    their    sons.      Of   the    sons    of    the 
Kohathites :  Heman  the  singer,  the  son  of  Joel,  the  son 
of  Samuel ;  the  son  of  Elkanah,  the  son  of  Jeroham,  the  34 
son  of  EHel,  the  son  of  Toah ;  the  son  of  Zuph,  the  35 
son  of  Elkanah,  the  son  of  Mahath,  the  son  of  Amasai ; 
the  son  of  Elkanah,  the  son  of  Joel,  the  son  of  Azariah,  3^ 
the  son  of  Zephaniah ;  the  son  of  Tahath,  the  son  of  37 
Assir,  the  son  of  Ebiasaph,  the  son  of  Korah  ;  the  son  of  38 
Izhar,  the  son  of  Kohath,  the  son  of  Levi,  the  son  of 
Israel.     And  his  brother  Asaph,  who  stood  on  his  right  39 
hand,   even   Asaph   the  son  of  Berechiah,   the  son  of 
Shimea ;  the  son  of  Michael,  the  son  of  Baaseiah,  the  son  40 
of  Malchijah  ;  the  son  of  Ethni,  the  son  of  Zerah,  the  son  41 
of  Adaiah  ;  the  son  of  Ethan,  the  son  of  Zimmah,  the  son  42 
of  Shimei ;  the  son  of  Jahath,  the  son  of  Gershom,  the  43 
son  of  Levi.     And  on  the  left  hand  their  brethren  the  44 
sons  of  Merari :  Ethan  the  son  of  Kishi,  the  son  of  Abdi, 
the  son  of  Malluch ;  the  son  of  Hashabiah,  the  son  of  45 
Amaziah,  the  son  of  Hilkiah  ;  the  son  of  Amzi,  the  son  of  4*^ 
Bani,  the  son  of  Shemer ;  the  son  of  Mahli,  the  son  of  47 
Mushi,  the  son  of  Merari,  the  son  of  Levi.     And  their  48 
brethren  the  Levites  were  appointed  for  all  the  service  of 
the  tabernacle  of  the  house  of  God. 

But  Aaron  and  his  sons  offered  upon  the  altar  of  burnt  49 

genealogies  are  complete,  as  appears  from  the  great  diversity  in  the 
number  of  names  assigned  to  the  three  guilds ;  thus  Heman  has 
twenty  links  in  his  genealogy,  Asaph  fifteen,  and  Ethan  only 
twelve.  The  section  appears  to  be  the  original  work  of  the 
chronicler,  and  to  have  been  compiled  with  strict  reference  to 
the  Second  Temple  and  its  music. 

(d)  49-53.     Second  genealogy   of  High-Prieatly  line.      In    this 

F    2 


68  I   CHRONICLES  6.  50-57.     Ch  H 

offering,  and  upon  the  altar  of  incense,  for  all  the  work  of 
the  most  holy  place,  and  to  make  atonement  for  Israel, 
according  to  all   that  Moses  the  servant  of  God  had 

50  commanded.     And  these  are  the  sons  of  Aaron ;  Eleazar 

51  his  son,  Phinehas  his  son,  Abishua  his  son ;  Bukki  his 

52  son,  Uzzi  his  son,  Zerahiah  his  son;  Meraioth  his  son, 

53  Amariah  his  son,  Ahitub  his  son  ;  Zadok  his  son,  Ahimaaz 
his  son. 

54  [H]  Now  these  are  their  dwelling  places  according  to 
their  encampments  in  their  borders:  to  the  sons  of  Aaron, 
of  the  families  of  the  Kohathites,  for  theirs  was  the  first 

5.T  lot,  to  them  they  gave  Hebron  in  the  land  of  Judah,  and 

56  the  suburbs  thereof  round  about  it ;  but  the  fields  of 
the  city,  and  the  villages  thereof,  they  gave  to  Caleb  the 

57  son  of  Jephunneh.  And  to  the  sons  of  Aaron  they  gave 
the  cities  of  refuge,    Hebron;    Libnah  also  with   her 

section  the  chronicler,  or  possibly  a  later  scribe,  sums  up  the 
duties  of  the  Aaronic  priesthood.  These  consisted  of  (i)  the 
offering  of  the  burnt-sacrifice  and  of  incense,  (2)  the  attendance 
upon  the  Temple,  and  (3)  the  making  of  the  atonement  for  Israel. 
It  seems  to  be  implied  that  the  Pentateuch  as  known  in  post-exilic 
days  had  existed  in  its  final  form  since  the  time  of  Mo^es,  so  that 
the  ritual  obtaining  in  the  Second  Temple  is  assumed  in  writing  of 
the  remote  past.  The  list  of  high-priests  to  the  time  of  Solomon, 
which  follows,  is  identical  with  that  given  in  verses  4-8. 

{e)  54-81.  LevUical  Cities.  The  list  of  the  cities  inhabited  by 
the  Levites  has  been  copied  from  Joshua  xxi,  with  alterations 
which  are  mainly  verbal.  Many  corruptions  have  crept  into  the 
place-names  in  the  course  of  transcription,  and  some  few  names 
have  dropped  out.  Verses  64,  65  would  occupy  a  more  natural 
position  in  the  narrative  if  placed  in  the  middle  of  verse  54,  in 
which  case  they  would  stand  parallel  to  the  introductory  verses 
in  Joshua  xxi. 

The  cities  belonging  to  the  Kohathites,  Gershomites,  and  Merar- 
ites  are  given  in  detail.  The  enumeration  opens  with  a  brief 
mention  of  the  Kohathite  settlements  around  Hebron  (verses 
54''-56).  Then  follow  certain  cities  allocated  to  the  Aaronic 
priests  (verses   57-60),  from  which  Jochthah  and  Gibeon  have 


I   CHRONICLES  6.  58-69.     H  Ch"  H  69 

suburbs,  and  Jattir,  and  Eshtemoa  with  her  suburbs; 
and  Hilen  with  her  suburbs,  Debir  with  her  suburbs ;  58 
and  Ashan  with  her  suburbs,  and  Beth-shemesh  with  her  59 
suburbs  :  and  out  of  the  tribe  of  Benjamin ;  Geba  with  60 
her  suburbs,  and  Allemeth  with  her  suburbs,  and  Anathoth 
with   her   suburbs.      All    their   cities   throughout   their 
families  were  thirteen  cities.     [Ch^]  And  unto  the  rest  of  61 
the  sons  of  Kohath  were  given  by  lot,  out  of  the  family 
of  the  tribe,  out  of  the  half  tribe,  the  half  of  Manasseh, 
ten  cities.     And  to  the  sons  of  Gershom,  according  to  62 
their  famihes,  out  of  the  tribe  of  Issachar,  and  out  of  the 
tribe  of  Asher,  and  out  of  the  tribe  of  Naphtali,  and  out 
of  the  tribe   of  Manasseh   in   Bashan,  thirteen   cities. 
Unto  the  sons  of  Merari  were  give^i  by  lot,  according  to  63 
their  families,  out  of  the  tribe  of  Reuben,  and  out  of  the 
tribe  of  Gad,  and  out  of  the  tribe  of  Zebulun,  twelve 
cities.     And  the  children  of  Israel  gave  to  the  Levites  64 
the  cities  with  their  suburbs.     And  they  gave  by  lot  out  65 
of  the  tribe  of  the  children  of  Judah,  and  out  of  the 
tribe  of  the  children  of  Simeon,  and  out  of  the  tribe  of 
the  children  of  Benjamin,  these  cities  which  are  mentioned 
by  name.     [H]  And  some  of  the  families  of  the  sons  of  66 
Kohath  had  cities  of  their  borders  out  of  the  tribe  of 
Ephraim.     And  they  gave  unto  them  the  cities  of  refuge,  67 
Shechem  in  the  hill  country  of  Ephraim  with  her  suburbs ; 
Gezer  also  with  her  suburbs ;    and  Jokmeam  with  her  68 
suburbs,  and  Beth-horon  with  her  suburbs ;  and  Aijalon  69 

been  omitted.  Following  upon  this,  we  have  in  verses  61-63 
condensed  statements  of  the  districts  occupied  by  the  descendants 
of  Kohath,  Gershom,  and  Merari  respectively  ;  in  the  centre  of 
verse  61  there  is  a  curious  hiatus  caused  by  the  omission  of  the 
words,  'of  Ephraim  and  of  the  tribe  of  Dan.'  Lastly,  we  have  a 
more  detailed  account  of  the  towns  in  the  possession  of  the  Kohath- 
ites  (66-70),  the  Gershomites  (71-76),  and  the  Merarites  (77  -81). 


^o  I    CHRONICLES  6.  70—7.  r.     H 

with  her  suburbs,  and  Gath-rimmon  with  her  suburbs : 

70  and  out  of  the  half  tribe  of  Manasseh ;  Aner  with  her 
suburbs,  and  Bileam  with  her  suburbs,  for  the  rest  of 

71  the  family  of  the  sons  of  Kohath.  Unto  the  sons  of 
Gershom  were  given,  out  of  the  family  of  the  half  tribe 
of  Manasseh,  Golan  in  Bashan  with  her  suburbs,  and 

72  Ashtaroth  with  her  suburbs  :  and  out  of  the  tribe  of 
Issachar;    Kedesh  with  her  suburbs,  Daberath  with  her 

73  suburbs ;  and  Ramoth  with  her  suburbs,  and  Anem  with 

74  her  suburbs  :  and  out  of  the  tribe  of  Asher ;  Mashal  with 
7o  her  suburbs,  and  Abdon  with  her  suburbs ;  and  Hukok 

76  with  her  suburbs,  and  Rehob  with  her  suburbs :  and  out 
of  the  tribe  of  Naphtali;  Kedesh  in  Galilee  with  her 
suburbs,  and  Hammon  with  her  suburbs,  and  Kiriathaim 

77  with  her  suburbs.  Unto  the  rest  of  the  Levites,  the  sons 
of  Merari,  ivere  given,  out  of  the  tribe  of  Zebulun,  Rim- 

78  mono  with  her  suburbs.  Tabor  with  her  suburbs :  and 
beyond  the  Jordan  at  Jericho,  on  the  east  side  of  Jordan, 
were  given  thefn,  out  of  the  tribe  of  Reuben,  Bezer  in  the 
wilderness  with  her  suburbs,  and  Jahzah  with  her  suburbs, 

79  and  Kedemoth  with  her  suburbs,  and  Mephaath  with 

80  her  suburbs  :  and  out  of  the  tribe  of  Gad ;  Ramoth  in 
Gilead  with  her  suburbs,  and  Mahanaim  with  her  suburbs. 

Si  and  Heshbon  with   her   suburbs,  and  Jazer  with   her 

suburbs. 
7      And  of  the  sons  of  Issachar ;  Tola,  and  Puah,  Jashub, 


Among  the  alterations  effected  by  our  compiler  we  notice  the 
omission  of  Joshua  xxi.  23  between  verses  68  and  69  ;  and  the 
omission  of  two  names  and  the  variation  of  other  two  from 
Joshua  xxi.  34-5  ;  and  the  correction  of  the  names  (in  verse  70) 
which  were  wrongly  given  in  Joshua  x3ci.  25. 

(6)   vii.      Genealogies  of  the  southern  cis-Jordanic  tribes  of  Israel. 
The  chapter  is   devoted   to  the  genealogies  of   the    tribes   of 
Issachar,  Benjamin,   Naphtali,  cis-Jordanic   Manasseh,   Ephraim, 


I    CHRONICLES  7.  2-8.     H  Ch  H  Ch  71 

and  Shimron,  four.     [Ch]  And  the  sons  of  Tola ;  Uzzi,  2 
and   Rephaiah,   and   Jeriel,    and   Jahmai,    and    Ibsam, 
and  Shemuel,  heads  of  their  fathers'  houses,  to  wit,  of 
Tola ;  mighty  men  of  valour  in  their  generations :  their 
number  in  the  days  of  David  was  two  and  twenty  thousand 
and  six  hundred.     And   the  sons  of  Uzzi ;    Izrahiah :  3 
and  the  sons  of  Izrahiah ;   Michael,  and  Obadiah,  and 
Joel,  Isshiah,  five :   all  of  them  chief  men.     And  with  4 
them,  by  their  generations,  after  their   fathers'  houses, 
were  bands  of  the  host  for  war,  six  and  thirty  thousand : 
for  they  had  many  wives  and  sons.     And  their  brethren  5 
among  all  the  families  of  Issachar,  mighty  men  of  valour, 
reckoned  in  all  by  genealogy,  were  fourscore  and  seven 
thousand. 

[H]   The  sons  <?/"Benjamin  \  Bela,  and  Becher,  [Ch]  and  6 
Jediael,  three.     And  the  sons  of  Bela ;  Ezbon,  and  Uzzi,  7 
and  Uzziel,  and  Jerimoth,  and  Iri,  five ;  heads  of  fathers' 
houses,  mighty  men  of  valour ;  and  they  were  reckoned 
by  genealogy  twenty  and  two  thousand  and  thirty  and 
four.     And  the  sons  of  Becher ;   Zemirah^  and  Joash,  8 
and  Eliezer,  and  Elioenai,  and  Omri,  and  Jeremoth,  and 

and  Asher.  In  the  case  of  the  first  two  and  of  the  last  of  these, 
we  have  an  estimate  of  the  war-footing  of  the  tribes. 

(a)  1-5.  Issachar.  The  name  Issachar  is  of  disputed  signi- 
ficance,but  was  connected  in  Hebrew  history  with  the  root  denoting 
*  wages':  cf.  Gen.  xxx.  18.  The  territory  of  the  tribe  lay  between 
the  uplands  of  central  Palestine  and  the  deep  Jordan  valley  ;  the 
great  trade-route  of  the  valley  of  Megiddo  ran  across  it.  The 
four  sons  of  Issachar  are  named  as  in  Num.  xxvi.  23-4  ;  but  in 
Gen.  xlvi.  13,  by  the  omission  of  a  letter,  we  read  Job  instead  of 
Jashub.  The  line  is  only  traced  for  four  generations.  The 
number  of  tribal  warriors,  estimated  at  87,000,  is  probably  taken 
from  David's  census. 

{b)  6-12.  Benjamin.  The  name  signifies  '  son  of  my  right  hand.' 
The  tribe  inhabited  the  plateau  at  the  southern  end  of  the  central 
highlands  of  Ephraim.  Situated  in  a  stern  and  somewhat  barren 
land,  the  tribesmen  were  a  warlike  race,  and  played  no  mean  part 


72  I   CHRONICLES  7.  9-13.     Ch  H 

9  Abijah,  and  Anathoth,  and  Alemeth.  All  these  were  the 
sons  of  Becher.  And  they  were  reckoned  by  genealogy, 
after  their  generations,  heads  of  their  fathers'  houses, 
mighty  men  of  valour,  twenty  thousand  and  two  hundred. 

10  And  the  sons  of  Jediael ;  Bilhan  :  and  the  sons  of  Bilhan ; 
Jeush,  and  Benjamin,  and  Ehud,  and  Chenaanah,  and 

11  Zethan,  and  Tarshish,  and  Ahishahar.  All  these  were 
sons  of  Jediael,  according  to  the  heads  of  their  fathers' 
houses,  mighty  men  of  valour,  seventeen  thousand  and 
two  hundred,  that  were  able  to  go  forth  in  the  host  for 

12  war.  Shuppim  also,  and  Huppim,  the  sons  of  Ir,  Hushim, 
the  sons  of  Aher. 

13  [H]  The  sons  of  Naphtali ;  Jahziel,  and  Guni,  and 
Jezer,  and  Shallum,  the  sons  of  Bilhah. 


in  the  history  of  their  people.  The  chronicler  gives  genealogical 
lists  of  the  tribe,  both  here  and  in  ch,  viii.  In  the  present  list 
we  read  of  only  three  sons  of  Benjamin,  whereas  Num.  xxvi. 
38-40  names  five,  and  Gen.  xlvi.  21  gives  them  as  ten  (including, 
however,  the  grandsons).  Then  follow  the  names  of  five  sons  of 
Bela,  nine  of  Becher  (the  last  two  being  really  place-names),  and 
one  son  and  seven  grandsons  of  Jediael.  The  number  of  Benjamite 
warriors  is  presumably  taken  from  David's  census. 

12.  Shuppim  and  Huppim.  The  text  is  undoubtedly  corrupt : 
the  names  Shuppim  and  Huppim  occur  in  varied  form  in  Gen. 
xlvi.  21  ;  but  the  same  names  occur  in  verse  15  of  our  chapter 
under  the  genealogy  of  Manasseh.  Moreover,  Hushim  is  named 
in  Gen.  xlvi.  23  as  a  son  of  Dan,  which  seems  to  prove  that  the 
MS.  is  defective  here,  the  tribe  of  Dan  having  been  omitted  with 
the  exception  of  the  mutilated  fragment  which  now  constitutes 
verse  12.  It  has  even  been  supposed  that  there  is  a  correct  and 
long-forgotten  allusion  to  this  omission  in  the  phrase  'sons  of 
Aher,'  which  might  be  translated  *  sons  of  the  other.'  In  com- 
parison with  the  earlier  narrative  we  see  that  both  Dan  and 
Zebulun  are  omitted  from  the  present  chapter. 

(c)  13.  Naphtali.  The  tribal  territory  lay  along  the  western 
shore  of  the  sea  of  Galilee  and  the  Jordan  bank.  It  contained 
well-watered  and  fruitful  lands.  In  the  genealogy  here  given  we 
have  only  the  names  of  the  sons  of  Naphtali,  but  these  agree 
with  Gen.  xlvi.  24-5  and  Num.  xxvi.  48-9. 


I  CHRONICLES  7.  14-20.     H'^  Ch  73 

[H^]  The  sons  of  Manasseh  ;   Asriel,  whom  his  wife  \  \ 
bare :    (his  concubine  the  Aramitess   bare  Machir  the 
father  of  Gilead :   and  Machir  took  a  wife  of  Huppim  15 
and  Shuppim,  whose  sister's  name  was  Maacah ;)  and  the 
name  of  the  second  was  Zelophehad  :  and  Zelophehad 
had  daughters.     And  Maacah  the  wife  of  Machir  bare  16 
a  son,  and  she  called  his  name  Peresh ;  and  the  name 
of  his  brother  was  Sheresh;  and  his  sons  were  Ulam 
and  Rakem.     And  the  sons  of  Ulam;  Bedan.     These  17 
were  the  sons  of  Gilead  the  son  of  Machir,  the  son  of 
Manasseh.     And  his  sister  Hammolecheth  bare  Ishhod,  18 
and  Abiezer,  and  Mahlah.     And  the  sons  of  Shemida  19 
were  Ahian,  and  Shechem,  and  Likhi,  and  Aniam. 

[Ch]  And  the  sons  of  Ephraim  ;  Shuthelah,  and  Bered  20 
his  son,  and  Tahath  his  son,  and  Eleadah  his  son,  and 

{d)  14-19.  Manasseh.  The  tribe  occupied  the  hill-country  to 
the  north  of  Ephraim  from  the  Jordan  to  the  sea.  We  read  here 
of  two  only  of  the  six  families  of  Manasseh  mentioned  in  Num. 
xxvi.  29-34,  viz.  Asriel  and  Shemida.  The  text  is  corrupt  at 
this  point  and  the  narrative  is  very  obscure.  But  the  latter  part 
of  verse  14  seems  to  refer  to  a  concubine  of  Manasseh,  in  that  the 
correct  line  of  descent  referred  to  in  this  verse  was  Manasseh- 
Machir-Gilead-Asriel  (cf.  Gen.  1.  23,  and  Num.  xxvi.  spff.'.  The 
LXX  reads  :  '  The  sons  of  Manasseh,  Esriel,  whom  his  Syrian 
concubine  bore,  and  she  also  bore  him  Machir,  father  of  Gilead.' 
(It  is  interesting  to  note  here  that  Philo  quotes  this  verse,  and  this 
only,  from  the  Book  of  Chronicles,  using  it  as  an  allegorical 
illustration  of  the  relation  of  recollection  to  memoryo)  Again, 
verse  15*  is  confused  and  corrupt.  As  it  stands,  it  implies  that 
Maacah,  the  wife  of  Machir,  was  sister  to  the  Benjamites  (?)  here 
named  ;  and  the  versions  do  not  help  us  to  restore  the  text.  But 
the  second  part  of  the  verse  seems  rightly  to  be  connected  with 
verse  14*  (as  is  shown  by  the  marks  of  parenthesis  in  the  R.  V.), 
if  it  be  borne  in  mind  that  Zelophehad  was  in  reality  a  nephew  of 
Machir  (Num.  xxvi.  33).  The  two  concluding  verses  of  the 
section  (18,  19)  represent  the  third  and  fourth  families  of  the 
Manassites. 

{e)  20-29.  Ephraim.  The  tribal  name  signifies  '  fertile  tract,' 
and  is  eminently  applicable  to  their  ancestral  lands  in  the  well- 


74         I   CHRONICLES  7.  21-28.     Ch  H^  Ch 

21  Tahath  his  son,  and  Zabad  his  son,  and  Shuthelah  his 
son,  [H^]  and  Ezer,  and  Elead,  whom  the  men  of  Gath 
that  were  born  in  the  land  slew,  because  they  came  down 

22  to  take  away  their  cattle.  And  Ephraim  their  father 
mourned  many  days,  and  his  brethren  came  to  comfort 

23  him.  And  he  went  in  to  his  wife,  and  she  conceived, 
and  bare  a  son,  and  he  called  his  name  Beriah,  because 

24  it  went  evil  with  his  house.  And  his  daughter  was 
Sheerah,  who  built  Beth-horon  the  nether  and  the  upper, 

25  and  Uzzen-sheerah.  [Ch]  And  Rephah  was  his  son, 
and  Resheph,  and  Telah  his  son,  and  Tahan  his  son ; 

26  Ladan  his  son,  Ammihud  his  son,  Elishama  his  son ; 
28  Nun  his  son,  Joshua  his  son.     And  their  possessions  and 

habitations  were   Beth-el  and   the   towns   thereof,  and 
eastward  Naaran,  and  westward  Gezer,  with  the  towns 


watered  uplands  of  central  Palestine,  extending,  as  they  did,  for 
ninety  miles  from  Beth-el  in  the  south  to  Megiddo  in  the  north.  In 
the  present  genealogies  of  this  independent  and  warlike  tribe  we 
find  six  generations  of  the  line  of  Shuthelah  (cf.  Num.  xxvi.  35)  ; 
then  a  second  line  is  taken  up  in  verse  25  and  is  traced  from 
Rephah  to  Joshua.  Amid  the  genealogical  records  there  is 
inserted  a  brief  account  of  a  disastrous  cattle-raid  on  the  part  of 
two  clansmen  upon  their  Canaanite,  or  Philistine,  neighbours. 
The  raid  must  have  taken  place  after  the  settlement  of  the 
Ephraimites  in  Palestine  ;  and,  in  that  case,  the  Ephraim  of 
verse  22  (i)  either  refers  to  a  later  descendant  of  the  founder  of 
the  tribe,  or  (2)  the  verse  is  a  figurative  statement  of  the  fact 
that  the  place  of  the  slaughtered  clansmen  of  Ezer  and  Elead  was 
taken  by  a  newly  formed  clan  bearing  the  name  of  Beriah.  The 
latter  explanation  is  supported  by  the  statement  of  viii.  13,  where 
we  read  that  the  Benjamites  of  the  clan  of  Beriah  '  put  to  flight 
the  inhabitants  of  Gath,'  whence  we  gather  that  the  rescuing 
Benjamites  received  the  inheritance  of  the  lost  tribesmen  and 
were  thereafter  reckoned  among  the  tribe  of  Ephraim.  The 
narrative  presents  a  vivid  picture  of  frontier  warfare  in  the  early 
days  of  Hebrew  history.  In  verse  24  prominence  is  given  to  the 
heiress  Sheerah  from  the  fact  that  her  descendants  occupied  the 
two  towns  Beth-horon  and  Uzzen-sheerah  in  the  south  of  the  tribal 
territory.     In  verses  28,  29  we  find  a  list  of  Ephraimite  frontier 


I 


I   CHRONICLES  7.  29-40.     Ch  H  Ch  75 

thereof;  Shechem  also  and  the  towns  thereof,  unto 
Azzah  and  the  towns  thereof :  and  by  the  borders  of  the  29 
children  of  Manasseh,  Beth-shean  and  her  towns,  Taanach 
and  her  towns,  Megiddo  and  her  towns,  Dor  and  her 
towns.  In  these  dwelt  the  children  of  Joseph  the  son  of 
Israel. 

[H]  The  sons  of  Asher ;    Imnah,  and   Ishvah,  and  30 
Ishvi,  and  Beriah,  and  Serah  their  sister.     And  the  sons  31 
of  Beriah;    Heber,   and   Malchiel,  [Ch]  who   was   the 
father   of    Birzaith.      And    Heber   begat   Japhlet,    and  32 
Shomer,  and  Hotham,  and  Shua  their  sister.     And  the  33 
sons   of  Japhlet;    Pasach,   and   Bimhal,   and  Ashvath. 
These  are  the  children  of  Japhlet.     And  the  sons  of  34 
Shemer;  Ahi,  and  Rohgah,  Jehubbah,  and  Aram.     And  35 
the  sons  of  Helem  his  brother ;  Zophah,  and  Imna,  and 
Shelesh,  and  Amal.     The  sons  of  Zophah ;   Suah,  and  36 
Harnepher,  and  Shual,  and  Beri,  and  Imrah  ;     Bezer,  37 
and  Hod,  and  Shamma,  and  Shilshah,  and  Ithran,  and 
Beera.     And  the  sons  of  Jether ;  Jephunneh,  and  Pispah,  38 
and  Ara.     And  the  sons  of  Ulla;   Arab,  and  Hanniel,  39 
and  Rizia.     All  these  were  the  children  of  Asher,  heads  40 
of  the  fathers'  houses^  choice  and  mighty  men  of  valour, 
chief  of  the  princes.     And  the  number  of  them  reckoned 

towns,  and  we  learn  from  the  inclusion  among  them  of  the 
Benjamite  town  of  Beth-el  that  the  boundaries  described  were 
those  recognized  at  the  disruption  of  the  kingdom,  when  Beth-el 
actually  fell  to  the  northern  tribes. 

(/)  30-40.  Asher.  The  name  denotes  '  blessed,'  and  the  tribal 
lands  lay  on  the  north-west  coast  of  Palestine.  The  present 
genealogy  is  confined  to  the  three  clans  of  the  Imnites,  the  Ishvites, 
and  the  Berites.  The  war-footing  of  the  tribe  as  given  in  our 
text  refers  only  to  the  families  whose  lines  are  here  traced,  not 
•to  the  entire  tribe.  The  whole  tribe  is  said  to  have  numbered 
in  the  days  of  the  Exodus  over  twice  as  many  as  the  present  figures 
state. 


76  I    CHRONICLES  8.  1-7.     Ch  R 

by  genealogy  for   service  in   war  was   twenty  and  six 
thousand  men. 
8      [R]  And  Benjamin  begat  Bela  his  firstborn,  Ashbel  the 

2  second,  and  Aharah  the  third ;  Nohah  the  fourth,  and 

3  Kapha  the  fifth.     And  Bela  had  sons,  Addar,  and  Gera, 

4  and  Abihud  ;  and  Abishua,  and  Naaman,  and  Ahoah ; 
c,  6  and  Gera,  and  Shephuphan,  and  Huram.     And  these  are 

the  sons  of  Ehud  :  these  are  the  heads  of  fathers'  houses 

of  the  inhabitants  of  Geba,  and  they  carried  them  captive 

7  to  Manahath  :  and  Naaman,  and  Ahijah,  and  Gera,  he 

carried  them  captive;  and  he  begat  Uzza  and  Ahihud. 

(7)  viii.  Benjamite  Genealogies  and  the  House  of  Saul. 
There  is  little  room  to  doubt  that  these  Benjamite  genealogies 
originally  possessed  a  more  symmetrical  form,  but  this  has  been 
so  hopelessly  lost  that  even  the  ancient  versions  fail  to  lead  us  to 
a  satisfactory  text.  Their  general  plan  does  not  differ  appreciably 
from  that  of  the  former  list  of  Benjamites  given  in  vi.  6-1 1,  which 
it  seems  intended  to  supplement.  The  two  lists  undoubtedly 
come  from  different  sources,  and  ch.  viii  bears  every  mark  of 
being  quite  a  late  insertion  in  the  text  of  the  Chronicles.  It 
reflects  unmistakably  the  circumstances  of  the  post-exilic  com- 
munity, when  in  verse  28  it  speaks  of  large  numbers  of  Benjamites 
as  dwelling  in  Jerusalem,  for  we  learn  from  the  Books  of  Ezra 
and  Nehemiah  to  what  a  large  extent  the  ancient  capital  was 
repeopled  by  Benjamites  after  the  Captivity. 

(«)  viii.  T-28.  Benjamite  Genealogies. 

1-5.  The  names  given  here  differ  considerably  from  the  list  of 
Gen.  xlvi,  21,  but  agree  more  closely  with  that  found  in  Num. 
xxvi.  38.  The  names  of  those  who  failed  to  found  families  are 
naturally  omitted  ;  and,  moreover,  it  is  probable  either  that  the 
names  Nohah  and  Rapha  (verse  2)  are  alternatives  to  or  corrup- 
tions of  Shephupham  and  Hupham  of  Num.  xxvi.  39,  or  that  they 
stand  for  later  links.  The  six  descendants  of  Bela  named  here 
stand  in  the  uncertain  relationship  so  often  indicated  by  the  word 
'sons,'  which  frequently  means  '  cousins.' 

6-7.  Among  the  records  of  the  family  of  Ehud  it  is  interesting 
to  read  of  a  raid  of  one  Benjamite  clan  upon  another,  in  which 
Gera  carried  away  captive  certain  fellow  tribesmen,  Naaman  and 
Ahijah.  The  position  of  their  destination,  Manahath,  is  uncertain  ; 
but  the  narrative  is  so  rugged  and  obscure  that  one  is  tempted  to 


I   CHRONICLES  8.  8-28.     R  77 

And  Shaharaim  begat  children  in  the  field  of  Moab,  after  8 
he  had  sent  them  away ;  Hushim  and  Baara  were  his 
wives.     And  he  begat  of  Hodesh  his  wife,  Jobab,  and  9 
Zibia,  and  Mesha,  and  Malcam  ;  and  Jeuz,  and  Shachia,  10 
and  Mirmah.     These  were  his  sons,  heads  of  fathers' 
houses.     And  of  Hushim  he  begat  Abitub  and  Elpaal.  11 
And  the  sons  of  Elpaal ;  Eber,  and  Misham,  and  Shemed,  12 
who  built  Ono  and  Lod,  with  the  towns  thereof:  and  13 
Beriah,  and  Shema,  who  were  heads  of  fathers'  houses  of 
the  inhabitants  of  Aijalon,  who  put  to  flight  the  inhabitants 
of  Oath;  and  Ahio,  Shashak,and  Jeremoth;  andZebadiah,  14,  15 
and  Arad,  and  Eder ;  and  Michael,  and  Ishpah,  and  Joha,  16 
the  sons  of  Beriah;  and  Zebadiah,  and  Meshullam,  and  17 
Hizki,  and  Heber;  and  Ishmerai,  and  IzHah,  and  Jobab,  18 
the  sons  of  Elpaal ;  and  Jakim,  and  Zichri,  and  Zabdi ;  19 
and  EHenai,  and  Zillethai,  and  Eliel;  and  Adaiah,  and  20,21 
Beraiah^  and  Shimrath,  the  sons  of  Shimei ;  and  Ishpan,  22 
and  Eber,  and  Eliel ;  and  Abdon,  and  Zichri,  and  Hanan ;  23 
and  Hananiah,  and  Elam,  and  Anthothijah ;  and  Iphdeiah,  24,  25 
and  Penuel,  the  sons  of  Shashak ;  and  Shamsherai,  and  26 
Shehariah,  and  Athaliah ;  and  Jaareshiah,  and  Elijah,  and  27 
Zichri,  the  sons  of  Jeroham.     These  were  heads  of  fathers'  28 


believe  that  it  is  a  confused  post-exilic  reference  to  the  great 
Captivity  itself. 

8-12.  The  u'hole  section  relating  to  the  Shaharaites  is  obscure. 
We  can  neither  determine  their  connexion  with  the  main  family- 
line  nor  shed  any  light  upon  the  residence  of  Shaharaim  in  Moab. 
But  v^e  have  clear  evidence  that  post-exilic  circumstances  are 
reflected,  for  Ono  {  =  Kefr  'And)  and  Lod  {^Lydda)  of  verse  12 
originally  belonged  to  Ephraim  ;  and  it  seems  necessary  to  refer 
their  occupation  by  Benjamites,  and  also  the  settlement  in  Moab, 
to  post-exilic  times. 

13-28.  This  is  another  fragment  disconnected  with  the  context. 
It  certainly  does  not  continue  the  line  of  Elpaal  (verse  11).  It 
refers  to  five  groups  of  prominent  tribesmen,  viz.  those  of  Beriah, 
Elpaal,  Shimei,  Shashak,  and  Jeroham,  whose  names  originally 


78  I   CHRONICLES  8.  29-40.     R 

houses  throughout  their  generations,   chief  men :   these 

29  dwelt  in  Jerusalem.  And  in  Gibeon  there  dwelt  the 
father  of  Gibeon,  Jeiel^  whose  wife's  name  was  Maacah  : 

30  and  his  firstborn  son  Abdon,  and  Zur,  and  Kish,  and 

31  Baal,  and  Nadab  ;  and  Gedor,  and  Ahio,  and  Zecher. 

32  And  Mikloth  begat  Shimeah,  And  they  also  dwelt  with 
their  brethren  in  Jerusalem,  over  against  their  brethren. 

33  And  Ner  begat  Kish ;  and  Kish  begat  Saul ;  and  Saul 
begat  Jonathan,  and  Malchi-shua,  and  Abinadab,  and 

34  Eshbaal.     And  the  son  of  Jonathan  was  Merib-baal ;  and 

35  Merib-baal  begat  Micah.    And  the  sons  of  Micah ;  Pithon, 

36  and  Melech,  and  Tarea,  and  Ahaz.  And  Ahaz  begat 
Jehoaddah ;  and  Jehoaddah  begat  Alemeth,  and  Azma- 

37  veth,  and  Zimri ;  and  Zimri  begat  Moza  :  and  Moza  begat 
Binea  ;  Raphah  was  his  son,  Eleasah  his  son,  Azel  his  son  : 

3S  and  Azel  had  six  sons,  whose  names  are  these ;  Azrikam, 
Bocheru,  and  Ishmael,  and  Sheariah,  and  Obadiah,  and 

39  Hanan.  All  these  were  the  sons  of  Azel.  And  the  sons 
of  Eshek  his  brother;   Ulam   his    firstborn,  Jeush   the 

40  second,  and  Eliphelet  the  third.  And  the  sons  of  Ulam 
were  mighty  men  of  valour,  archers,  and  had  many  sons, 
and  sons'  sons,  an  hundred  and  fifty.  All  these  were  of 
the  sons  of  Benjamin. 

occurred  in  verses  13, 14,  for  verse  14  is  to  be  correctly  read  thus  : 
'and  Elpaal  his  brother  (  =  Ahio)  and  Shashak  and  Jcroham.' 
We  have  already  shown  the  probable  connexion  of  verse  13  with 
vii.  21  {vide  in  loco) ;  but  nothing  is  known  of  the  remaining  names. 
{b)  29-40.  The  House  of  Saul.  Verses  29-38  recur  in 
ix.  35-44  (q.  v.)  with  certain  orthographical  variations.  Of  the 
ancestors  of  Saul  we  learn  that  they  resided  mainly  in  Gibeon 
but  that  the  clan  of  Mikloth  settled  in  Jerusalem.  The  connexion 
of  the  royal  line  with  Benjamin  is  not  stated  ;  and  it  is  evident 
that  some  of  the  links  are  omitted,  for  we  learn  from  i  Sam.  ix.  r, 
xiv.  51,  that  Kish  was  the  son  of  Abiel,  not  of  Ner.  Of  Saul's 
sons,  Abinadab  is  certainly  another  name  for  Ishui,  and  Eshbaal 
for  Ish  bosheth  (cf.  also  Mcribaal  and  Mephibosheth).     The  line 


I   CHRONICLES  9.  i,  2.     Ch.  79 

[Ch]  So  all  Israel  were  reckoned  by  genealogies  ;  and,  9 
behold,  they  are  written  in  the  book  of  the  kings  of  Israel : 
and  Judah  was  carried  away  captive  to  Babylon  for  their 
transgression.     Now  the  first  inhabitants  that  dwelt  in  2 
their  possessions  in  their  cities  were,  Israel,  the  priests, 

of  David's  friend,  Jonathan,  is  traced  through  thirteen  generations. 
If  we  place  the  death  of  Jonathan  in  loio  b.  c.  (cf.  Kenned}'  on 
'  Samuel '  in  Century  Bible),  and  allow  thirty-five  years  to  a 
generation,  this  brings  us  down  to  the  date  of  the  Captivity  in 
587  B.C.,  whence  it  appears  that  the  section  aims  at  giving  the 
pedigree  of  the  post-exilic  community  which  claimed  descent  from 
Saul.  The  concluding  verse  is  an  echo  of  verse  i,  and  indicates 
that  the  chapter  constitutes  a  well-defined  document  separate 
from  the  rest  of  the  genealogies. 

(8)  ix.     Post-exilic  inhabitants  of  Jerusalem. 
The  whole  chapter  is  undoubtedly  the  work  of  the  chronicler, 
and  bears  a  close  relation  to  Neh.  vii.   73,  xi.  4-19. 

(a)  ix.  1-3.  The  restored  community.  The  opening  verse  of 
the  chapter  is  a  resume  of  the  eight  preceding  chapters.  The 
chronicler  lays  stress  upon  the  fact  that  genealogical  records  of 
all  Israel,  including  both  kingdoms,  had  been  made  and  still 
existed.  For  fuller  information  he  refers  his  readers  to  a  source 
which  was  readily  accessible  to  them  in  his  day.  but  which,  it 
must  be  insisted,  is  not  identical  with  the  canonical  Book  of  Kings. 
Cf.  Introd.  §  iv. 

1.  Judah  was  carried  away  captive.  The  fall  of  Jerusalem 
and  the  first  captivity  occurred  in  587  B.C.,  when  the  armies  of 
Nebuchadnezzar  forced  their  way  into  the  capital  and  crushed  the 
long  resistance  of  Zedekiah. 

for  their  transgression.  All  the  Hebrew  historians  recognize 
that  national  apostasy  was  the  fundamental  cause  of  national 
disaster;  and  it  is  quite  typical  of  the  prophetic  attitude  also  that 
the  issues  of  life  and  conduct  should  be  explained  upon  the  basis 
of  character ;  but  such  interpretations  as  this  are  specially 
characteristic  of  the  chronicler's  reverent  reading  of  history. 

Verse  2  introduces  us  to  the  main  subject  of  the  chapter,  viz. 
the  post-exilic  inhabitants  of  Jerusalem.  The  close  connexion  of 
the  following  records  with  Neh.  xi  leads  us  to  inquire  into 
their  origin.  Some  have  argued  from  the  phrase  *  the  first  in- 
habitants that  dwell  in  their  possessions,'  &c.,  that  the  chapter  is 
a  list  of  pre-exilic  inhabitants  of  Jerusalem  ;  but  this  position  is 
now  acknowledged  to  be  untenable.  The  evident  resemblance  of 
this  chapter  to  Neh.  xi  in  form  and  contents  conclusively  proves 


8o  I   CHRONICLES  9.  3-5.     Ch 

3  the  Levites,  and  the  Nethinim.  And  in  Jerusalem  dwelt 
of  the  children  of  Judah,  and  of  the  children  of  Benjamin, 

4  and  of  the  children  of  Ephraim  and  Manasseh  ;  Uthai 
the  son  of  Ammihud,  the  son  of  Omri,  the  son  of  Imri, 
the  son  of  Bani,  of  the  children  of  Perez  the  son  of  Judah. 

5  And  of  the  Shilonites  ;  Asaiah  the  firstborn,  and  his  sons. 

that  this  is  a  case  of  doublets ;  hence  the  conclusion  follows 
that  we  are  dealing  with  a  list  of  the  early  post-exilic  residents 
in  the  capital.  These  inhabitants  are  described  in  general  terms 
as  *  Israel,  the  priests,  the  Levites,  and  the  Nethinim.'  The 
words  are  not  very  clear ;  but  it  appears  that  the  general  mass 
of  returned  exiles,  of  whatever  tribe,  were  sharply  discrimi- 
nated from  the  priestly  orders,  while  the  latter  were  divided  into 
priests,  Levites  (including  singers  and  porters),  and  Nethinim. 
We  learn  from  the  Books  of  Ezra  and  Nehemiah  that  the  majority 
of  the  returned  exiles  belonged  to  the  tribes  of  Judah  or  Benjamin, 
and  we  find  the  division  of  the  priestly  classes  here  mentioned 
still  in  force.  The  priests  performed  the  sacrificial  duties  of  the 
sanctuary ;  the  Levites  superintended  the  remaining  ministrations 
of  the  Temple  generally ;  and  the  Nethinim  were  the  inferior 
Temple  servants.  But,  while  the  earlier  portion  of  the  chapter 
evidently  refers  to  this  condition  of  things,  the  later  sections 
seem  to  reflect  the  conditions  of  the  chronicler's  own  daj',  when 
the  whole  of  the  lower  orders  of  the  Temple  ministrants  had  been 
reorganized.  In  course  of  time  the  small  number  of  the  returned 
Levites  needed  to  be  augmented,  especially  when  the  musical 
service  was  developed,  and  this  seems  to  have  been  done  by 
admitting  the  Nethinim  to  the  full  privileges  of  the  Levites. 

The  close  parallel  between  our  chapter  and  Neh.  xi  is  evident 
even  to  the  most  superficial  reader  ;  and  the  most  satisfactory 
explanation  is  that  the  list  of  Neh.  xi  represents  the  inhabit- 
ants of  Jerusalem  in  Nehemiah's  day,  whereas  i  Chron.  ix  is 
a  later  list  compiled  by  the  chronicler  himself  upon  the  basis  of 
Neh.  xi. 

3.  Although  Ephraimites  and  Manassites  are  said  to  have 
swollen  the  ranks  of  the  post-exilic  inhabitants  of  Jerusalem,  not 
a  single  member  of  their  tribes  is  included  in  the  following  lists. 

{b)  4-9.  Lay  residents.  Comparing  verses  4-6  with  Neh, 
xi.  4,  5  we  find  that  the  chronicler  gives  one  more  family  of 
Judah,  and  comparing  verses  7-9  with  Neh.  xi.  7-9  we  find  the 
names  of  three  more  Benjamite  families  in  our  passage.  The 
three  chieftains  of  Judah  represent  the  clans  of  Perez,  Shilon,  and 


I   CHRONICLES  9.  6-13.     Ch  81 

And  of  the  sons  of  Zerah ;  Jeuel,  and  their  brethren,  six  6 
hundred  and  ninety.    And  of  the  sons  of  Benjamin  ;  Sallu  7 
the  son  of  Meshullam,  the  son  of  Hodaviah,  the  son  of 
Hassenuah  ;  and  Ibneiah  the  son  of  Jeroham,  and  Elah  8 
the  son  of  Uzzi,  the  son  of  Michri,  and  Meshullam  the 
son  of  Shephatiah,  the  son  of  Reuel,  the  son  of  Ibnijah  ; 
and  their  brethren,  according  to  their  generations,  nine  9 
hundred  and  fifty  and  six.     All  these  men  were  heads  of 
fathers'  houses  by  their  fathers'  houses. 

And  of  the  priests ;  Jedaiah,  and  Jehoiarib,  and  Jachin ;  10 
and  Azariah  the  son  of  Hilkiah,  the  son  of  Meshullam,  the  11 
son  of  Zadok,  the  son  of  Meraioth,  the  son  of  Ahitub,  the 
ruler  of  the  house  of  God;  and  Adaiah  the  son  of  Jeroham,  12 
the  son  of  Pashhur,  the  son  of  Malchijah,  and  Maasai  the 
son  of  Adiel,  the  son  of  Jahzerah,  the  son  of  Meshullam, 
the  son  of  Meshillemith,  the  son  of  Immer;  and  their  13 
brethren,  heads  of  their  fathers'  houses,  a  thousand  and 
seven  hundred  and  threescore;   very  able  men  for  the 

Zerah  ;  but  the  descendants  of  Uthai  (verse  4)  differ  from  those 
given  in  chaps,  ii-iv.  The  numbers  given  in  verse  6  evidently 
refer  to  the  three  families  named  in  verses  4-6.  Of  Benjamin, 
vi'e  have  the  names  of  four  leaders,  Sallu,  Ibneiah,  Elah,  and 
Meshullam  ;  whereas  of  these  Neh.  xi.  7-9  gives  the  name  of 
Sallu  only,  with  different  names  for  all  his  ancestors  except  his 
father,  and  adds  the  names  of  Gabbai,  Sallai,  Joel,  and  Judah. 

(c)  10-13.  The  Priests.  The  section  agrees  with  Neh.  xi, 
with  the  exception  of  the  change  of  Seraiah  to  Azariah  and  of 
Amashsai  to  Maasai.  It  appears  that  the  priests  numbered  1,760, 
and  were  divided  into  three  classes.  The  first  class  comprised  the 
families  of  Jedaiah,  Jehoiarib,  and  Jachin  ;  the  second  the  family 
of  Azariah,  who  was  descended  from  Ahitub  and  is  mentioned  in 
vi.  13,  and  was  known  as  'the  ruler  of  the  house  of  God' ;  and 
the  third  contained  the  houses  of  Adaiah  and  Maasai.  The 
numbers  cannot  possibly  refer  to  the  '  heads  of  fathers'  houses '  ; 
and  it  is  best  to  transpose  the  two  opening  clauses  of  verse  13 
and  refer  them  to  *  their  brethren.'  But  even  so  we  leave  a  dis- 
crepancy between  Chronicles  and  Nehemiah,  as  the  total  number 
of  able  priests  is  given  in  Nehemiah  as  only  1,192. 


82  I    CHRONICLES  9.  14-20.     Ch. 

14  work  of  the  service  of  the  house  of  God.  And  of  the 
Levites ;  Shemaiah  the  son  of  Hasshub,  the  son  of 
Azrikam,  the  son  of  Hashabiah,  of  the  sons  of  Merari ; 

15  and  Bakbakkar,  Heresh,  and  Galal,  and  Mattaniah  the 

16  son  of  Mica,  the  son  of  Zichri,  the  son  of  Asaph;  and 
Obadiah  the  son  of  Shemaiah,  the  son  of  Galal,  the  son 
of  Jeduthun,  and  Berechiah  the  son  of  Asa,  the  son  of 
Elkanah,  that  dwelt  in  the  villages  of  the  Netophathites. 

17  And  the  porters ;  Shallum,  and  Akkub,  and  Talmon,  and 

18  Ahiman,  and  their  brethren  :  Shallum  was  the  chief;  who 
hitherto  waited  in  the  king's  gate  eastward :   they  were 

19  the  porters  for  the  camp  of  the  children  of  Levi.  And 
Shallum  the  son  of  Kore,  the  son  of  Ebiasaph,  the  son  of 
Korah,  and  his  brethren,  of  his  father's  house,  the  Korah- 
ites,  were  over  the  work  of  the  service,  keepers  of  the  gates 
of  the  tabernacle :  and  their  fathers  had  been  over  the  camp 

20  of  the  Lord,  keepers  of  the  entry ;  and  Phinehas  the  son  of 
Eleazar  was  ruler  over  them  in  time  past,  andXki^  Lord  was 

(^)  14-16.  Levites.  (Cf.  Neh.  xi.  13-19.)  Among  the 
Levitic  families  named  here  we  have  one  descended  from 
Jeduthun,  and  one  from  Asaph,  whence  it  is  not  improbable  that 
they  belonged  to  the  musical  guilds.  It  is  noticeable  that  the 
chronicler  entirely  omits  Neh.  xi.  16,  and  also  fails  to  give  the 
number  of  the  porters.  From  this  point,  moreover,  the  two 
records  diverge  entirely,  the  chronicler  devoting  his  space  mainly 
to  the  duties  of  the  porters  and  Levites,  while  Nehemiah  gives 
further  lists  of  priests  and  Levites  with  their  cities. 

{e)  17-34.  Duties  of  Porters  and  Levites.  Throughout  this 
section  the  chronicler  is  thinking  of  the  Temple  service  of  his 
own  day.  The  king's  gate  was  so  called  because  the  king 
always  entered  by  the  east  doorway  (cf.  Ezek.  xlvi.  i,  2).  The 
ministrations  of  the  Temple  porters  are  traced  back  for  their 
origin  to  the  old  days  of  the  desert  wanderings  (verses  18-19), 
and  hence  the  Korahites  are  confirmed  in  their  privileges  as 
guardians  of  the  gateways.  To  the  statement  that  Phinehas 
superintended  their  order  in  the  days  of  Joshua,  the  chronicler 
adds  the  characteristic  reflection  that  Jehovah's  presence  was 
recognized  even  in  the  duty  of  keeping  the  doors  (verse  20). 


I   CHRONICLES  9.  21-.V.     Ch  83 

with  him.     Zechariah  the  son  of  Meshelemiah  was  porter  21 
of  the  door  of  the  tent  of  meeting.     All  these  which  were  22 
chosen  to  be  porters  in  the  gates  were  two  hundred  and 
twelve.     These   were   reckoned   by   genealogy  in   their 
villages,  whom  David  and  Samuel  the  seer  did  ordain  in 
their  set  office.     So  they  and  their  children  had  the  23 
oversight  of  the  gates  of  the  house  of  the  Lord,  even  the 
house  of  the  tabernacle,  by  wards.    On  the  four  sides  were  24 
the  porters,  toward  the  east,  west,  north,  and  south.     And  25 
their  brethren,  in  their  villages,  were  to  come  in  every 
seven  days  from  time  to  time  to  be  with  them  :  for  the  26 
four  chief  porters,  who  were  Levites,  were  in  a  set  office, 
and  were  over  the  chambers  and  over  the  treasuries  in  the 
house  of  God.     And  they  lodged  round  about  the  house  27 
of  God,  because  the  charge  thereof  was  upon  them,  and  to 
them  pertained  the  opening  thereof  morning  by  morning. 
And  certain  of  them  had  charge  of  the  vessels  of  service ;  2S 
for  by  tale  were  they  brought  in  and  by  tale  were  they 
taken  out.     Some  of  them  also  were  appointed  over  the  29 
furniture,  and  over  all  the  vessels  of  the  sanctuary,  and 
over  the  fine  flour,  and  the  wine,  and  the  oil,  and  the 
frankincense,  and  the  spices.     And  some  of  the  sons  of  30 
the  priests  prepared  the  confection  of  the  spices.     And  31 

We  have  an  isolated  historic  reminiscence  in  verse  21,  which 
probably  refers  to  the  Davidic  door-keepers  mentioned  in  xxvi.  2  ; 
the  verse,  however,  closes  the  allusions  to  ancient  observances 
of  the  Temple  door-keepers.  It  is  not  to  be  assumed  that  the 
chronicler  was  in  error  in  tracing  the  original  appointment  of  the 
porters  back  to  the  days  of  David  and  Samuel,  although  the 
service  had  developed  in  the  interval  by  an  inevitable  course  of 
evolution,  during  which  the  number  of  porters  grew  from  its 
original  93  (cf.  xxvi.  10,  11)  to  the  212  of  the  chronicler's  day. 
Yet  this  solitary  allusion  to  the  part  played  by  Samuel  in 
organizing  the  Temple  service  justifies  us  in  concluding  that  the 
names  of  both  Samuel  and  David  are  only  claimed  in  a  very 
general  way  as  being  the  authors  of  the  organization  extant  in 

G   2 


84  I   CHRONICLES  9.  32-43.     Ch  R^  Ch 

Mattithiah,  one  of  the  Levites,  who  was  the  firstborn  of 
Shallum  the  Korahite,  had  the  set  office  over  the  things 

32  that  were  baked  in  pans.  And  some  of  their  brethren,  of 
the  sons  of  the  Kohathites,  were  over  the  shewbread,  to 

33  prepare  it  every  sabbath.  [R^]  And  these  are  the  singers, 
heads  of  fathers'  houses  of  the  Levites,  w/io  dwelt  in  the 
chambers  and  were  ix^^from  other  service  :  for  they  were 

34  employed  in  their  work  day  and  night.  [Ch]  These 
were  heads  of  fathers'  houses  of  the  Levites,  throughout 
their  generations,  chief  men  :  these  dwelt  at  Jerusalem. 

35  And  in  Gibeon  there  dwelt  the  father  of  Gibeon,  Jeiel, 

36  whose  wife's  name  was  Maacah  :  and  his  firstborn  son 
Abdon,  and  Zur,  and  Kish,  and  Baal,  and  Ner,  and  Nadab ; 

37,  3S  and  Gedor,  and  Ahio,  and  Zechariah,  and  Mikloth.     And 
Mikloth  begat  Shimeam.     And  they  also  dwelt  with  their 

39  brethren  in  Jerusalem,  over  against  their  brethren.  And 
Ner  begat  Kish ;  and  Kish  begat  Saul ;  and  Saul  begat 
Jonathan,  and  Malchi-shua,  and  Abinadab,  and  Eshbaal. 

40  And  the  son  of  Jonathan  was  Merib-baal ;  and  Merib-baal 

41  begat   Micah.     And  the   sons  of  Micah ;    Pithon,  and 

42  Melech,  and  Tahrea,  a7id  Ahaz.  And  Ahaz  begat  Jarah  ; 
and  Jarah  begat  Alemeth,  and  Azmaveth,  and  Zimri ;  and 

43  Zimri  begat  Moza  :  and  Moza  begat  Binea  ;  and  Rephaiah 

the  chronicler's  time.  David  undoubtedly  played  a  large  part  in 
reorganizing  the  ancient  system  of  worship,  and  it  is  quite 
natural  to  suppose  that  he  was  developing  a  line  of  action  which 
was  in  harmony  with  the  labours  of  Samuel. 

Verses  33,  34  sum  up  the  contents  of  the  chapter.  Verse  33  is 
very  condensed,  and  contains  late  Hebrew  expressions,  but  the 
sense  is  clear,  viz.  that  the  singers  were  freed  from  their  other 
Levitic  duties  and  that  they  were  members  of  the  families  already 
named. 

(/)  35-44.  The  House  of  Saul.  This  genealogy  is  merely 
a  repetition  of  viii.  29-38,  and  is  seemingly  introduced  here  as 
a  connecting  link  between  the  condensed  history  of  the  genealogies 
and  the  fuller  narratives  which  follow. 


I   CHRONICLES  9.  44— 10.  i.     Ch  H  85 

his  son,  Eleasah  his  son,  Azel  his  son  :  and  Azel  had  six  44 
sons,  whose  names  are  these;  Azrikam,  Bocheru,  and 
Ishmael,  and  Sheariah,  and  Obadiah,  and  Hanan  :  these 
were  the  sons  of  Azel. 

[H]  Now  the  Philistines  fought  against  Israel :  and  the  10 

Reviewing  the  genealogical  records  as  a  whole,  one  is  struck  by 
the  fact  that  almost  everywhere  there  are  signs  of  an  underlying 
greater  symmetry  of  plan,  once  prominent,  but  now  no  longer 
recoverable.  It  is  also  clear  that  the  terms  of  relationship  are 
very  loosely  employed,  while  the  connecting  links  between  the 
sections  are  often  entirely  lost.  The  chronicler,  in  his  desire  to 
preserve  all  proofs  of  the  continuity  of  the  national  life,  was 
grappling  with  a  problem  which  presented  extraordinary  difficulties 
even  in  his  day,  and  he  has  failed  to  produce  order  out  of  the 
chaos  of  extant  documents  and  conflicting  claims.  Yet,  on  the 
whole,  we  have  a  remarkable  resume  of  the  world's  history  as  it 
concerned  the  returned  exiles,  and  we  see  everywhere  that  this 
history  has  been  presented  by  our  author  so  as  to  meet  the  needs 
of  his  contemporaries. 

ZZ.    SECOND  FABT. 

X— xxix.     The  Beign  of  David. 

The  chronicler  has  now  reached  the  point  at  which  he  is  pre- 
pared to  take  up  the  genuinely  historical  and  narrative  part  of 
his  work.  He  devotes  the  remainder  of  the  first  Book  of  the 
Chronicles  almost  wholly  to  the  events  of  the  reign  of  David  ;  and, 
in  the  way  in  which  he  selects  and  presents  his  facts,  we  have 
yet  further  insight  into  the  mental  and  religious  standpoint  of  the 
author.  In  his  rapid  genealogical  survey  of  ancient  history,  the 
chronicler  has  dropped  one  by  one  those  races  and  tribes  which 
seemed  to  diverge  from  the  line  of  the  Divine  purpose  for  the 
chosen  people.  With  comparatively  few  digressions  he  has 
traced  the  history  of  the  post-exilic  community  in  whom  (and 
their  ancestors)  the  Divine  will  seemed  to  him  to  be  manifesting 
itself.  Thus  he  was  led  by  way  of  Abraham  to  the  tribes  of 
Israel.  A  certain  amount  of  attention  had  necessarily  to  be 
given  to  all  the  tribes  owing  to  their  place  in  the  Covenant  of 
promise ;  but  it  is  very  evident  that  the  chronicler  regards  the 
southern  tribes  of  Judah  and  Benjamin,  along  with  Simeon,  as  the 
real  depositories  of  the  Divine  blessing.  Much  space  is  given  to 
the  religious  leaders ;  and  one  cannot  fail  to  realize  that  the 
Levites  are  the  supreme  consideration  in  the  author's  interest. 


86  I   CHRONICLES  10.  i.     H 

The  chronicler  describes  the  early  allocation  of  territory  to  the 
tribes,  and  intermingles  much  information  as  to  their  post-exilic 
places  of  residence,  but  he  entirely  omits  the  whole  period  of  the 
Judges  and  the  unsuccessful  attempt  of  Saul  to  found  a  kingdom. 
The  reason  for  these  and  other  omissions  is  plain.  By  the  time 
of  the  chronicler  the  very  existence  of  the  ten  northern  tribes  in 
the  promised  land  had  become  a  matter  of  ancient  history — further 
away  from  his  contemporaries  than  the  Wars  of  the  Roses  are 
from  us.  Hence  these  northern  tribes  were  a  negligible  factor 
for  one  who  was  tracing  the  Divine  purpose  in  history,  and  all 
interest  must  centre  in  the  southern  kingdom.  But  the  southern 
kingdom  was  to  all  intents  and  purposes  founded  solely  by 
David,  the  divinely  chosen  favourite  of  Jehovah.  And  David  had 
become  the  ideal  hero,  the  glamour  of  whose  deeds  so  dazzled 
the  returned  exiles  that  they  failed  to  see  his  faults.  Compared 
to  him,  Saul  was  merely  the  head  of  a  rejected  house,  and  the 
preceding  Judges  \yere  merely  individual  strong  men  of  an  un- 
settled period  which  was  of  little  consequence  to  Hebrew 
religious  history.  Therefore  the  chronicler  simply  ignored  those 
periods  which  seemed  to  have  had  no  part  in  moulding  the 
ecclesiastical  institutions  of  his  day.  The  reign  of  David  became 
to  him  the  all-important  subject,  and  that  in  an  idealized  form 
which  compelled  him  to  ignore  the  years  of  his  effete  rule  in 
Hebron  and  to  omit  such  blemishes  as  the  Bath-sheba  incident. 
With  regard  to  the  northern  monarchy,  even  the  better  features 
are  ignored,  as  though  they  were  entirely  obliterated  by  the 
national  apostasy  ;  its  kings  are  only  mentioned  in  so  far  as  they 
had  contact  with  Judah  ;  its  greatest  prophet,  Elijah,  is  but  once 
named,  and  then  only  as  the  author  of  a  letter  to  a  Jewish  king  ; 
and  Elisha  is  not  so  much  as  referred  to. 

There  is  no  doubt,  then,  that  the  chronicler's  entire  absorption 
in  his  own  Levitic  calling  determined  his  reading  of  his  country's 
history.  How  far  this  impaired  his  accuracy  as  an  historian  has 
been  pointed  out  already  (Introd.  §  vi).  His  omissions  and  his 
selections  do  frequently  present  history  in  a  dififerent  light  from 
that  of  Samuel  and  Kings.  Yet  we  must  not  lose  sight  of  the 
honesty  of  our  present  historian.  When  the  Chronicles  are  read 
from  the  view-point  of  their  author  they  do  not  appear  to  be  an 
attempt  to  construe  history  for  a  narrow  purpose,  much  less  to 
miscontrue  it.  The  constant  reference  of  his  readers  to  earlier 
and  extant  sources  is  proof  sufficient  of  this.  But  it  appears  that 
he  is  really  compiling  an  eclectic  history  as  a  kind  of  up-to-date 
textbook  for  the  community  among  which  he  lived.  If  we  are 
not  warranted  in  regarding  him  as  an  historian  of  unimpeachable 
accuracy,  we  are  just  as  little  warranted  in  undervaluing  his 
position  as  a  religious  guide  to  history.  And  this  view  of  our 
author  is  in  complete  accordance  with  the  character  of  the  Hebrew 


I   CHRONICLES  10.  i.     H  87 

men  of  Israel  fled  from  before  the  Philistines,  and  fell 

scriptures,  which  claimed  to  be  the  record  of  the  ways  of  God 
among  men  rather  than  an  infallible  narrative  of  secular  history. 

The  remaining  chapters  of  i  Chronicles  may  be  roughly 
divided  thus  : — 

(i)  X.    Saul's  overthrow. 

(2)  xi-xxi.    Establishment  of  David's  kingdom. 

(3)  xxii-xxix.    Preparations  for  Temple-building. 

The  material  for  these  chapters  is  largely  taken  from  2  Samuel, 
but  there  is  no  extant  original  of  xxii-xxix.  From  the  narratives 
of  2  Samuel  the  chronicler  omits  the  account  of  David's  reign  in 
Hebron  and  all  his  family  discords  ;  the  remaining  material  is 
only  occasionally  rearranged ;  and  the  whole  is  worked  up  in 
conformity  with  the  distinctly  religious  aims  of  the  compiler. 

The  sources  of  x-xxi  may  be  indicated  in  a  general  way  thus  : — 

I  Chron.  x.  1-12         i  Sam.  xxxi. 

„         xi.  1-9  2  Sam.  v.  1-3,  6-10. 

,,         xi.  10-41^    ,,        xxiii.  8-39*. 

,,         xiii.  6-18      „        vi.  2-11. 

„         xiv.  1-16      „        V.   ir-25. 

„         XV.  25-29     ,,        vi.  12-16. 

,,         xvi.  1-3        ,,        vi.  17-19. 

,,         xvi.  8-22      Psalm    cv.  1-15. 

„         xvii-xix        2  Sam.  vii,  viii-x. 

,,         XX         „        xii.  I,  26-31  ;  xxi.   18-22. 

,,         xxi        „        xxiv. 

(1)  X.     Fall  of  the  House  of  Saul. 

(i)  X.  1-7.  Death  of  Saul.  (Cf.  i  Sam.  xxxi.  1-7.)  It  is  fairly 
certain  that  the  reign  of  Saul  must  be  dated  1025-1010  B.C.  ^ 
(Acts  xiii.  21  being  a  general  estimate  which  historic  facts  show 
to  be  excessive).  In  any  case  the  disastrous  battle  of  Gilboa, 
which  closed  Saul's  last  campaign  with  the  Philistines,  occurred 
about  B.C.  loio. 

1.  the  Philistines  :  the  inhabitants  of  the  maritime  plain  lying 
between  the  mountains  of  Judah  and  the  Mediterranean.  Tradition 
identifies  them  with  the  natives  of  Crete,  belonging  to  a  tribe  of 
Semitic  immigrants  who  settled  in  the  island  and  subsequently 
returned  to  Syria  ;  it  seems  certain  that  they  entered  Syria  from 
the  south,  by  way  of  Egypt.  They  proved  the  inveterate  foes  of 
Israel  during  its  early  history. 

*  Cf.  Excursus  on  Chronology  in  Century  Bible,  on  Samuel  by 
Kennedy  and  on  Kings  by  Skinner. 


88  I   CHRONICLES  10.  2-7.     H 

2  down  slain  in  mount  Gilboa.  And  the  Philistines  followed 
hard  after  Saul  and  after  his  sons ;  and  the  Philistines 
slew  Jonathan,  and  Abinadab,  and  Malchi-shua,  the  sons 

3  of  Saul.  And  the  battle  went  sore  against  Saul,  and  the 
archers  overtook  him  ;  and  he  was  distressed  by  reason  of 

4  the  archers.  Then  said  Saul  unto  his  armourbearer,  Draw 
thy  sword,  and  thrust  me  through  therewith ;  lest  these 
uncircumcised  come  and  abuse  me.  But  his  armour- 
bearer  would  not ;  for  he  was  sore  afraid.     Therefore 

5  Saul  took  his  sword,  and  fell  upon  it.  And  when  his 
armourbearer  saw  that  Saul  was  dead,  he  likewise  fell 

6  upon  his  sword,  and  died.     So  Saul  died,  and  his  three 

7  sons ;  and  all  his  house  died  together.     And  when  all  the 

Mount  Gilboa  lies  to  the  south-east  of  the  great  Plain  of 
Esdraelon  which  runs  from  Carmel  to  the  Jordan  valle^'.  In  all 
probability  Saul  followed  the  Philistine  armies,  which  had 
mustered  at  Aphek,  in  their  march  into  Esdraelon.  Thence  the 
invaders  seem  to  have  moved  across  the  plain  towards  Shunem, 
and  Saul  formed  his  camp  on  the  heights  of  Gilboa  overlooking 
them.  The  cause  of  the  campaign  is  not  disclosed,  but  it  may 
well  have  been  either  the  desire  to  secure  the  route  to  Damascus 
for  the  Philistine  traders,  or  the  ambition  to  gain  possession  of 
the  Jordan  valley.  In  eitlier  case  it  was  essential  to  dislodge 
Saul  from  Mount  Gilboa.  Hence  the  attack  followed,  which 
must  have  been  delivered  from  the  easier  slopes  to  the  south 
where  mounted  forces  could  operate.  Saul  had  the  advantage  of 
position,  but  was  overwhelmed  by  the  fury  of  the  Philistine  onset. 
On  the  mountain-slopes  his  three  sons  fell  fighting  with  the 
courage  of  despair ;  and  the  fugitive  and  wounded  king,  refusing 
to  meet  humiliation  at  the  invaders'  hands,  and  preferring  suicide 
to  insult,  must  have  met  death  on  the  loftier  crests  of  the  mountain. 

3.  he  was  distressed:  this  implies  that  the  giant  king  was 
mentally  overwrought,  and  cannot  be  made  by  any  means  to  give 
the  sense  of  the  A.  V.,  '  he  was  wounded.' 

4.  abuse  me :  it  was  insult  before  death  that  Saul  dreaded. 
Death,  even  suicide,  was  to  him  preferable  to  the  indignities 
which  often  awaited  a  captured  king.  Instances  of  suicide  are 
very  rare  in  the  O.  T, 

6.  all  his  house:  a  mode  of  expressing  the  fact  that  the  entire 
staff  and  body-guard  of  the  king  fell  in  the  last  despairing  resistance 
on  Gilboa. 


I   CHRONICLES  10.  8-12.     H  89 

men  of  Israel  that  were  in  the  valley  saw  that  they  fled, 
and  that  Saul  and  his  sons  were  dead,  they  forsook  their 
cities,  and  fled ;  and  the  Philistines  came  and  dwelt  in 
them. 

And  it  came  to  pass  on  the  morrow,  when  the  Philistines  8 
came  to  strip  the  slain,  that  they  found  Saul  and  his  sons 
fallen  in  mount  Gilboa.     And  they  stripped  him,  and  9 
took  his  head,  and  his  armour,  and  sent  into  the  land  of 
the  Philistines   round  about,  to  carry  the  tidings  unto 
their  idols,  and  to  the  people.     And  they  put  his  armour  10 
in  the  house  of  their  gods,  and  fastened  his  head  in  the 
house  of  Dagon.     And  when  all  Jabesh-gilead  heard  all  n 
that  the  Philistines  had  done  to  Saul,  all  the  valiant  men  1 2 

7.  The  victory  of  the  Philistines  was  so  complete  that  the 
cities  of  the  Plain  and  of  the  Jordan  valley  were  evacuated  before 
the  invaders. 

(2)  X.  8-12.  Burial  of  Saul.  (Cf.  i  Sam.  xxxi.  8-13.)  The 
account  of  the  indignities  heaped  upon  Saul  and  his  sons  is  full 
of  a  pathetic  simplicity.  The  humiliation  of  Israel  seems  all  the 
more  complete  as  contrasted  with  the  exultation  in  the  heathen 
temples  of  Philistia.  The  courageous  devotion  of  the  men  of 
Jabesh-gilead  is  the  one  bright  spot  in  the  midnight. 

10.  Dag-on:  the  only  grounds  for  regarding  Dagon  as  a  fish -god 
is  the  derivation  of  the  name  from  dag,  '  a  fish  ' — but  Philo-Byblius 
derived  it  from  ddgdn,  '  corn,'  and  represented  the  god  as  a  god  of 
husbandry.  The  latter  is  the  more  probable  derivation,  and  seems 
to  accord  better  with  i  Sam.  v.  4.  There  were  temples  of  Dagon 
in  Gaza  (Judges  xvi.  21)  and  at  Ashdod  (i  Sam.  v.  i),  but  we 
have  no  proof  that  he  was  the  national  deity  of  the  Philistines. 
In  the  parallel  passage  of  i  Sam.  xxxi.  10  we  read  'they  put  his 
armour  in  the  house  of  the  Ashtaroth  :  and  they  fastened  his  body 
to  the  wall  of  Beth-shan.'  As  to  the  variations  from  i  Sam.  xxxi. 
10,  it  is  evident  that  the  earlier  work  preserves  the  correct  text, 
which  is  also  found  in  the  Syriac  version  of  this  passage. 

H.  Jabesh-gilead:  the  site  of  Jabesh  is  doubtful,  but  it  lay 
somewhere  in  the  hills  to  the  east  of  the  Jordan  valley,  probably 
on  a  parallel  with  Mount  Gilboa.  The  deed  of  its  inhabitants 
here  recorded  was  probably  prompted  by  gratitude  for  their 
deliverance  from  the  Ammonites  through  Saul's  aid  several  3'cars 
previously  (cf.  i  Sam.  xi.  i-io,. 


90       I    CHRONICLES   10.  13—11.  i.     H  Ch  H 

arose,  and  took  away  the  body  of  Saul,  and  the  bodies  of 
his  sons,  and  brought  them  to  Jabesh,  and  buried  their 
bones  under  the  oak  in  Jabesh,  and  fasted  seven  days. 

13  [Ch]  So  Saul  died  for  his  trespass  which  he  committed 
against  the  Lord,  because  of  the  word  of  the  Lord,  which 
he  kept  not ;  and  also  for  that  he  asked  counsel  of  one 

14  that  had  a  familiar  spirit,  to  inquire  thereby^  and  inquired 
not  of  the  Lord  :  therefore  he  slew  him,  and  turned  the 
kingdom  unto  David  the  son  of  Jesse. 

11      [H]  Then  all  Israel  gathered  themselves  to  David  unto 

12.  buried  their  bones:  the  statement  in  i  Samuel,  that  they 
first  burned  the  bodies,  is  unlikely  to  be  correct,  and  the  text  needs 
to  be  emended. 

under  the  oak :  this  tree,  called  a  '  tamarisk  '  in  i  Samuel, 
was  probably  a  well-known  one.  The  tamarisk  seems  to  have 
been  a  sacred  tree,  and  the  change  to  *  the  oak '  may  be  an 
intentional  variation  due  to  the  chronicler's  religious  bent. 

(3)  X.  13,  14.  Moral  deductions.  These  verses  form  the 
chroniclers  homily  upon  the  historic  events  recorded.  He 
accuses  Saul  of  disobedience  to  Jehovah  and  of  complicity  with 
the  sorceress  of  Endor. 

14.  inquired  not  of  the  IiOBD :  as  a  matter  of  fact  Saul  had 
inquired  of  Jehovah,  but  no  answer  had  been  vouchsafed  ;  it  was 
only  subsequently  that  he  went  to  the  sorceress. 

(2)  xi-xxi.     Establishment  of  David's  Kingdoin. 
(i)  xi.     David  in  Hebron. 

7(1)  xi.  1-9.  David  called  to  the  throne  of  Israel.  David  is  intro- 
duced by  the  historian  with  almost  startling  suddenness.  As  the 
narrative  runs  it  seems  to  imply  that,  immediately  upon  the  death 
of  Saul,  all  Israel  assembled  at  Hebron  and  ratified  the  Divine 
choice  of  one  whom  they  already  knew  as  a  military  leader  to  be 
their  king.  And  no  sooner  had  the  new  king  entered  into 
a  covenant  with  the  Hebrew  princes  than,  on  the  chronicler's 
showing,  the  whole  host  proceeded  to  Jerusalem  and  captured  it 
under  the  leadership  of  Joab  ;  and  thereupon  the  kingdom  of 
David  attained  to  its  glory.  At  the  same  time  there  is  no  mention 
of  David's  plebeian  origin,  of  his  entrance  into  the  service  of 
Saul,  of  his  outlaw  life,  of  his  alliance  with  the  Philistines,  of  his 
seven  and  a  half  years'  reign  over  the  southern  tribes  in  Hebron, 


I   CHRONICLES  11.2,3.     H  91 

Hebron,  saying,  Behold,  we  are  thy  bone  and  thy  flesh. 
In  times  past,  even  when  Saul  was  king,  it  was  thou  that  2 
leddest  out  and  broughtest  in  Israel :  and  the  Lord  thy 
God  said  unto  thee,  Thou  shalt  feed  my  people  Israel, 
and  thou  shalt  be  prince  over  my  people  Israel.  So  all  3 
the  elders  of  Israel  came  to  the  king  to  Hebron ;  and 
David  made  a  covenant  with  them  in  Hebron  before  the 
Lord  ;  and  they  anointed  David  king  over  Israel,  accord- 
ing to  the  word  of  the  Lord  by  the  hand  of  Samuel. 


or  of  the  long  warfare  with  Ish-bosheth.  Evidently  the  chronicler 
has  omitted  all  incidents  derogatory  to  the  person  and  rule  of 
David  because  he  desires  to  show  the  Divine  origin  and  the  ancient 
glory  of  the  Davidic  monarchy.  Doubtless  the  result  would  be  to 
give  such  a  false  impression  of  the  early  monarchy  as  might  be 
called  a  complete  distortion  of  facts,  were  it  not  the  case  that  the 
larger  history  was  accessible  to  all  readers.  And  any  dishonesty 
of  purpose  on  the  chronicler's  part  is  excluded  by  the  facts  that 
these  other  histories  were  at  the  time  permanentl3''  established  in 
the  national  possession  and  that  he  constantly  refers  to  supple- 
mentary sources  of  information.  For  verses  1-9  cf.  2  Sam.  v.  r-3 
and  6-10. 

1.  Hebron  :  David  had  already  reigned  over  Southern  Israel  in 
this  ancient  stronghold  for  seven  and  a  half  years  ;  during  this 
time  he  may  have  been  partially  under  the  suzerainty  of  the 
Philistine  conquerors  of  Saul,  only  gradually  becoming  strong 
enough  to  assert  his  independence.  This  troubled  period  also 
contains  the  two  years'  reign  of  Ish-bosheth  with  the  military 
preponderance  of  Abner. 

2.  This  verse  contains  the  only  reference  of  the  chronicler  to 
David's  early  career.  He  contents  himself  with  leaving  the 
impression  that  David  had  been  a  great  soldier,  a  national  hero, 
marked  out  by  Divine  favours  as  the  future  leader  of  the  covenant 
people. 

3.  made  a  covenant :  the  parley  between  David  and  the 
northern  princes  resulted  in  a  definition  of  the  duties  and  relation- 
ships of  king  and  people  ;  it  is  the  foreshadowing  of  a  constitution. 
Indeed,  the  entire  history  of  Judah  shows  that  the  title  to  the 
throne  was  based  upon  the  dual  sanction  of  the  Divine  call  and 
the  popular  election.  The  remark  that  these  events  occurred 
'  according  to  the  word  of  the  Lord  by  the  hand  of  Samuel '  is  the 
chronicler's  own  comment  upon  the  historic  facts. 


92  I   CHRONICLES  11.  4-8.     H 

4  And  David  and  all  Israel  went  to  Jerusalem  (the  same  is 
Jebus) ;  and  the  Jebusites,  the  inhabitants  of  the  land, 

5  were  there.  And  the  inhabitants  of  Jebus  said  to  David, 
Thou  shalt  not  come  in  hither.  Nevertheless  David 
took  the  strong  hold  of  Zion ;  the  same  is  the  city  of 

6  David.  And  David  said,  Whosoever  smiteth  the  Jebus- 
ites first  shall  be  chief  and  captain.     And  Joab  the  son  of 

7  Zeruiah  went  up  first,  and  was  made  chief.  And  David 
dwelt  in  the  strong  hold  ;  therefore  they  called  it  the  city 

8  of  David.     And  he  built  the  city  round  about,  from  Millo 

xi.  4-9.     The  Capture  of  Jerusalem. 

4.  Jerusalem :  the  earliest  historic  reference  to  this  famous 
city  occurs  in  the  Tell-el-Amarna  letters  (where  it  is  called  U-ru- 
sa-lim),  about  1400  b.c.  At  that  date  it  was  apparently  held  for 
the  king  of  Egypt  by  a  chieftain  named  Abd-hiba.  During  the 
four  centuries  which  intervened  between  that  day  and  its  capture 
by  David  it  seems  to  have  remained  in  the  hands  of  the  Canaanite 
tribe  known  as  Jebusites.  Its  position  was  one  of  great  strategic 
value  ;  but  the  lack  of  references  to  it  implies  that  it  was  small  and 
unimportant.  David,  however,  recognized  its  strength,  and 
determined  to  make  it  the  capital  of  the  new  kingdom.  Probably 
the  time  of  his  attack  was  dictated  by  the  importance  of  inaugur- 
ating his  reign  over  united  Israel  by  a  military  triumph  over  an 
alien  fortress. 

5.  Thou  Shalt  not  come  in  hither.  The  chronicler  omits 
the  greater  part  of  the  obscure  taunt  of  the  Jebusites,  which 
implied  that  it  was  sufficient  for  the  defence  of  Jebus  to  man  the 
wall  with  cripples.  But  David's  veterans  proved  able  to  reduce 
the  stronghold,  i.  e.  to  secure  the  eastern  ridge  of  the  two  hills 
covered  by  the  modern  Jerusalem. 

6.  The  obscure  passage  of  2  Sam.  v.  8,  *  let  him  get  up  to  the 
watercourse,'  &c.,  is  omitted,  probably  because  it  was  already 
unintelligible  in  the  chronicler's  day.  In  its  place  we  have  the 
promise  of  David  to  raise  the  successful  leader  of  the  siege  to  the 
post  of  commander-in-chief. 

8.  Millo:  more  correctly,  'the  Millo.'  It  was  an  important 
fortification  of  the  new  capital,  and  may  have  been  of  the  nature 
of  a  fortified  embankment  connecting  the  '  city  of  David '  with  the 
'Temple  mount'  on  the  other  side  of  the  ravine.  It  is  included 
among  the  works  of  Solomon  in  i  Kings  ix.  15,  and  was  rebuilt 
by  Hezekiah  (cf.  2  Chron.  xxxii.  5).     The  meaning  of  the  word 


I   CHRONICLES  11.  9-11.     H  Ch^  H  93 

even  round  about :  and  Joab  repaired  the  rest  of  the  city. 
And  David  waxed  greater  and  greater  ;  for  the  Lord  of  9 
hosts  was  with  him. 

[Ch^]   Now  these  are  the  chief  of  the  mighty  men  10 
whom  David  had,  who  shewed  themselves  strong  with 
him  in  his  kingdom,  together  with  all  Israel,  to  make  him 
king,  according  to  the  word  of  the  Lord  concerning 
Israel.     [H]  And  this  is  the  number  of  the  mighty  men  1 1 


is  more  fully  discussed  in  the  Century  Bible  on  i  Kings  ix.   15 
(Skinner). 

9.  the  LORD  of  hosts  was  with  him  :  the  fact  that  this  is  not 
an  addition  of  the  chronicler's  but  a  quotation  from  the  earlier 
source  indicates  that  the  later  religious  reading  of  history  was 
only  a  natural  outcome  of  the  earlier.  The  phrase  *  Lord  of 
hosts*  is  a  title  for  the  Divine  Being  which  came  into  use  during 
the  later  monarchy  (cf.  Cheyne  in  Encycl.  Bibl.  on  names,  §  123). 

IiOBD :  a  name  of  somewhat  doubtful  form,  derived  from 
the  Hebrew  verb  '  to  be,'  which  expresses  the  idea  of  life,  or  self- 
existence.  Its  probable  pronunciation  was  Yahveh ;  but  the 
sense  of  God's  holiness  and  unapproachableness  led  the  Israelites 
to  shun  the  utterance  of  the  name  and  to  substitute  the  vowels  of 
the  Hebrew  word  for  'Lord'  i^Adonai)  for  those  of  'Yahveh' 
while  retaining  its  consonants ;  hence  the  English  word  '  Jehovah ' 
is  composed  of  the  consonants  of  one  word  and  the  vowels  of 
another. 

(2)  xi.  10-47.  David's  Hei'oes.  (Cf.  2  Sam.  xxiii.  8-39*.)  The 
warriors  who  surrounded  David  in  the  work  of  establishing  the 
kingdom  were  divided  into  two  knightly  orders,  'The  Three '  and 
'  The  Thirty.'  Admission  to  these  orders  was  conditioned  by 
deeds  of  personal  prowess.  The  register  given  in  verses  10-41'^ 
is  derived  from  2  Sam.  xxiii.  8-39,  with  numerous  textual  variations, 
the  text  of  Chronicles  being  the  better  preserved ;  and  the  same 
list  is  partly  repeated  in  i  Chron.  xxvii.  2-15.  Verses  41-47  have 
no  parallel  in  2  Samuel,  and  have  evidently  been  taken  from 
an  historic  source  no  longer  extant. 

10.  This  verse  is  original,  and  constitutes  the  chroniclers 
introduction  to  the  following  lists.  In  the  heroism  of  these  early 
kingdom-builders  he  sees  the  fulfilment  of  that  Divine  purpose 
which,  to  him,  is  so  clearly  written  upon  his  country's  history  in 
the  events  under  the  Davidic  monarchy. 

xi.  ir-14.    The  Three.     From  the  hopelessly  corrupt  readings 


94  I   CHRONICLES  11.  12-15.     H 

whom  David  had  :  Jashobeam,  the  son  of  a  Hachmonite, 
the  chief  of  the  thirty ;   he  lifted  up  his  spear  against 

12  three  hundred  and  slew  them  at  one  time.  And  after 
him  was  Eleazar  the  son  of  Dodo,  the  Ahohite,  who  was 

13  one  of  the  three  mighty  men.  He  was  with  David  at 
Pas-dammim,  and  there  the  Philistines  were  gathered 
together  to  battle,  where  was  a  plot  of  ground  full  of 
barley;  and  the  people  fled  from  before  the  Philistines. 

14  And  they  stood  in  the  midst  of  the  plot,  and  defended  it, 
and  slew  the  Philistines ;  and  the  Lord  saved  them  by  a 

1 5  great  victory.     And  three  of  the  thirty  chief  went  down  to 


of  2  Samuel  and  the  versions  we  may  extract  what  is  probably 
the  correct  rendering  of  verse  11,  '  Ishbaal  the  Hachmonite,  chief 
of  the  Three.'  The  two  other  heroes  of  this  select  band  were 
Eleazar  and  Shammah.  The  chronicler,  however,  in  copying 
from  2  Samuel  has  omitted  verses  9**-ii"',  which  describe  the 
deeds  of  Eleazar  and  give  the  name  of  Shammah.  Owing  to  this 
omission,  he  has  continued  his  narrative  in  such  a  way  as  to 
ascribe  the  prowess  of  Shammah  to  Eleazar.  The  narrative  re- 
quires to  be  emended  by  inserting  these  verses  (2  Sam.  xxiii.  9^-1 1*) 
after  '  he  was  with  David '  (verse  13,).  By  this  means  w^e  secure 
a  clear  account  of  the  deeds  of  'The  Three' ;  and  it  is  probable  that 
the  section  concluded  here  with  the  phrase  *  these  things  did  the 
three  mighty  men,'  which  now  closes  verse  19.  But  the  episode 
of  the  three  unnamed  heroes  of  the  well  of  Beth-lehem  has  been 
inserted  in  our  text  in  such  a  way  as  to  imply  that  their  deed 
of  heroism  was  performed  by  Ishbaal,  Eleazar,  and  Shammah. 
This  seems  to  be  an  unwarranted  connexion  ;  and,  moreover,  the 
use  of  the  phrase  '  three  of  the  thirty  chief  in  verse  15  shows  that 
the  section,  verses  15-19,  should  probably  be  placed  at  the  end  of 
the  list  after  the  heroes  have  been  named. 

13.  Pas-dammim:  called  Ephes-dammim  in  x.  17,  but  we  have 
the  correct  reading  here. 

xi.  15-19.  Episode  of  the  Well  of  Beth-lehem.  No  more  complete 
proof  than  this  could  be  given  of  the  utter  devotion  of  these 
warriors  to  their  outlaw  chief;  and  David's  dedication  of  the 
water  to  Jehovah  is  an  equal  proof  of  his  esteem  of  the  courage  of 
his  heroes. 

15.  The  word  chief  should  probably  be  omitted  with  the  LXX. 
The  phrase  cave  of  Adullam  should  be  rendered  *  stronghold  of 


I   CHRONICLES  11.  16-20.     H 


95 


the  rock  to  David,  into  the  cave  of  AduUam  ;  and  the 
host  of  the  PhiHstines  were  encamped  in  the  valley  of 
Rephaim.     And  David  was  then  in  the  hold,  and  the  16 
garrison  of  the  Philistines  was  then  in  Beth-lehem.     And  17 
David  longed,  and  said,  Oh  that  one  would  give  me  water 
to  drink  of  the  well  of  Beth-lehem,  which  is  by  the  gate ! 
And  the  three  brake  through  the  host  of  the  Philistines,  18 
and  drew  water  out  of  the  well  of  Beth-lehem,  that  was  by 
the  gate,  and  took  it,  and  brought  it  to  David  :  but  David 
would  not  drink  thereof,  but  poured  it  out  unto  the  Lord, 
and  said,  My  God  forbid  it  me,  that  I  should  do  this :  19 
shall  I  drink  the  blood  of  these  men  that  have  put  their 
lives  in  jeopardy  ?  for  with  the  jeopardy  of  thtir  lives  they 
brought  it.     Therefore  he  would  not  drink  it.     These 
things   did  the  three  mighty  men.     And  Abishai,  the  20 

Adullam ' — the  fortress,  where  David  and  his  outlaw  band  took 
refuge  during  Saul's  reign,  lay  high  on  the  western  hill-line  of 
Judah  overlooking  the  Shephelah  ;  it  was  about  twelve  miles 
south-west  of  Beth-lehem,  and  is  represented  by  the  modern 
'Aid-el- Mor. 

16.  Beth-leheiu :  five  miles  south  of  Jerusalem,  amid  fertile 
valleys.  Although  it  is  to-day  entirely  without  springs,  the 
nearest  being  8co  yards  south-east  of  the  town,  its  waters  were 
famed  in  David's  day.  The  incident  narrated  here  describes  the 
temporary  occupation  of  Beth-lehem  by  the  marauding  Philistines 
(cf.  2  Sam.  v.  18^  and  the  daring  adventure  of  the  three  heroes, 
who,  cutting  their  way  through  the  invaders,  brought  water  for 
their  chieftain  from  the  well  which  flowed  by  the  gate  of  Beth- 
lehem. David's  appreciation  is  well  shown  by  his  description 
of  the  water  as  '  the  blood  of  men  who  have  jeopardized  their 
lives.' 

xi.  20-25.  The  chief  of  the  Thirty.  There  is  little  room  to  doubt 
that  the  text  has  become  obscured  by  the  confusing  of  the  terms 
'The  Three'  and  'The  Thirty.'  We  have  really  no  mention  of 
a  second  Three.  Abishai  and  Benaiah  are  merely  singled  out  as 
prominent  members  of  the  Thirty. 

20.  Abishai :  the  younger  brother  of  Joab  and  the  nephew  of 
David  (cf.  i  Sam.  xxvi.  6ff.  :  2  Sam.  ii.  24— iii.  30,  x.  loff.,  xviii. 
2ff.,  XX.  6ff.). 


96  I   CHRONICLES  11.  21-25.     H 

brother  of  Joab,  he  was  chief  of  the  three  :  for  he  lifted 
up  his  spear  against  three  hundred  and  slew  them,  and 

21  had  a  name  among  the  three.  Of  the  three,  he  was  more 
honourable  than  the  two,  and  was  made  their  captain : 

22  howbeit  he  attained  not  to  ihQ  first  three.  Benaiah  the 
son  of  Jehoiada,  the  son  of  a  valiant  man  of  Kabzeel,  who 
had  done  mighty  deeds,  he  slew  the  two  sons  of  Ariel  of 
Moab  :  he  went  down  also  and  slew  a  lion  in  the  midst  of  a 

23  pit  in  time  of  snow.  And  he  slew  an  Egyptian,  a  man  of 
great  stature,  five  cubits  high ;  and  in  the  Egyptian's  hand 
was  a  spear  like  a  weaver's  beam  ;  and  he  went  down  to 
him  with  a  staff,  and  plucked  the  spear  out  of  the  Egyp- 

24  tian's  hand,  and  slew  him  with  his  own  spear.  These 
things  did  Benaiah  the  son  of  Jehoiada,  and  had  a  name 

25  among  the  three  mighty  men.     Behold,  he  was  more 


chief  of  the  three :  read,  with  LXX  (B)  and  Syriac,  *  he 
was  captain  of  the  Thirty  ;  he  swung  his  spear  over  300  slain  and 
had  a  name  like  that  of  the  Three.' 

21.  The  text  yields  no  sense  as  it  stands  and  must  be  emended. 
The  opening  words,  '  Of  the  Three,'  are  probably  an  erroneous 
duplication  of  the  closing  words  of  verse  20  ;  and  the  words  'than 
the  two '  must  either  be  deleted  or  read  '  as  two '  (i.  e.  equal  to 
two).  The  best  rendering,  obtained  by  the  aid  of  verse  25,  is  '  He 
was  more  honourable  than  the  Thirty,  and  was  made  their  cap- 
tain ;  howbeit  he  attained  not  to  the  Three.' 

22.  Benaiah :  the  text  is  corrupt,  but  ma}'  be  restored  by  the 
aid  of  the  LXX  reading  of  the  parallel  passage  in  2  Samuel,  thus: 
'  Benaiah,  the  son  of  Jehoiada,  a  hero  of  mighty  deeds,  a  native 
of  Kabzeel.'  Xahzeel:  in  Southern  Judah,  on  the  frontiers  of 
Edom. 

sons  of  Ariel :  this  is  the  reading  of  LXX  (L).  The  rendering 
of  our  A.  v.,  'two  lion-like  men,'  can  scarcely  be  obtained  from 
the  original.  This  deed  stands  quite  distinct  from  the  following 
statement  that  he  had  courage  enough  to  grapple  at  close  quarters 
with  lions  famished  amid  the  snow. 

23.  five  cubits  hig-h  :  the  Egyptian  giant  must  have  stood  some 
eight  and  a  half  feet  in  height.  The  cubit  ( =  elbow)  may  roughly 
be  taken  as  twenty  inches. 

24.  among  the  three :  read,  as  in  verse  20,   '  like  that  of  the 


I   CHRONICLES  11.  26-40.     H  97 

honourable  than  the  thirty,  but  he  attained  not  to  the  Ji?'sf 
three :  and  David  set  him  over  his  guard. 

Also  the  mighty  men  of  the  armies ;  Asahel  the  brother  26 
of   Joab,    Elhanan   the   son   of   Dodo   of   Bethlehem ; 
Shammoth  the  Harorite,  Helez  the  Pelonite;   Ira  the  27,  28 
son  of  Ikkesh  the  Tekoite,  Abiezer  the  Anathothite; 
Sibbecai  the  Hushathite,  Ilai  the  Ahohite ;  Maharai  the  29,  30 
Netophathite,  Heled  the  son  of  Baanah  the  Netophathite  ; 
Ithai   the  son   of  Ribai  of  Gibeah  of  the  children  of  ^r 
Benjamin,  Benaiah  the  Pirathonite ;  Hurai  of  the  brooks  32 
of  Gaash,  Abiel  the  Arbathite;  Azmaveth  the  Baharumite,  33 
Eliahba    the    Shaalbonite ;    the    sons   of   Hashem   the  34 
Gizonite,  Jonathan  the  son  of  Shage  the  Hararite  ;  Ahiam  5c< 
the  son  of  Sacar  the  Hararite,  Eliphal  the  son  of  Ur ;  36 
Hepher  the  Mecherathite,  Ahijah  the  Pelonite ;  Hezro  3? 
the  Carmelite,  Naarai  the  son  of  Ezbai ;  Joel  the  brother  3S 
of    Nathan,    Mibhar    the    son    of    Hagri ;    Zelek    the  39 
Ammonite,  Naharai  the  Berothite,  the  armourbearer  of 
Joab  the  son  of  Zeruiah ;   Ira  the  Ithrite,   Gareb   the  4° 


Three.'      Benaiah  was  not  classed  with  the  members  of  the  first 
order,  although  his  renown  equalled  theirs. 

25.  over  his  guard.  The  royal  bodyguard  was  composed  of 
foreign  mercenaries,  known  as  the  Cherethites  (Heb,  Kretht)  and 
the  Pelethites  (Heb.  P/tV/n')  ;  the  former,  as  the  LXX  indicates, 
were  of  Cretan  origin,  although  long  reckoned  as  a  Philistine 
tribe  ;  and  the  latter  were  Philistines  proper.  A  new  light  is  shed 
upon  David's  attitude  to  the  inveterate  foes  of  the  Hebrews  when 
we  see  him  not  only  putting  himself  under  the  flag  of  Achish,  but 
actually  forming  his  bodyguard  of  Philistines  when  he  had  secured 
the  throne. 

26-4*7.  Roll  of  the  Thirty.  The  list  contains  more  than  thirty 
names.  Hence  we  gather  that  the  name  of  the  order  was  not 
intended  to  convey  the  idea  of  a  rigid  limitation  of  its  members — 
or  else  we  have  names  of  members  who  were  incorporated  when 
vacancies  subsequentlj'  occurred  (e.  g.  Asahel,  verse  26,  fell  at  the 
outset  of  David's  reign).     The  list  given  in  2  Samuel  concludes 

H 


98       I    CHRONICLES  11.  41— 12.  I.     H  H^  Ch 

41  Ithrite  ;  Uriah  the  Hittite,  [H^]  Zabad  the  son  of  Ahlai ; 

42  Adina   the   son   of    Shiza   the   Reubenite,   a    chief    of 

43  the  Reubenites,  and  thirty  with  him  ;   Hanan  the  son 

44  of   Maacah,    and   Joshaphat   the    Mithnite ;    Uzzia   the 
Ashterathite,  Shama  and  Jeiel  the  sons  of  Hotham  the 

45  Aroerite ;  Jediael  the  son  of  Shimri,  and  Joha  his  brother, 

46  the  Tizite ;  Ehel  the  Mahavite,  and  Jeribai,  and  Josha- 
viah,   the   sons  of  Elnaam,  and   Ithmah  the  Moabite ; 

47  Eliel,  and  Obed,  and  Jaasiel  the  Mezobaite. 

12      [Ch]  Now  these  are  they  that  came  to  David  to  Ziklag, 
while  he  yet  kept  himself  close  because  of  Saul  the  son  of 

with  the  name  of  Uriah  (verse  41)  ;  but  the  additions  of  the 
chronicler  must  have  been  derived  from  rehable  historic  sources. 
Nothing  is  known  of  any  of  these  heroes  except  Asahel  (2  Sam. 
ii.  18-23)  and  Uriah  (2  Sam.  xi). 

(2)  xii.  Regisiey  of  David- s  Warriors. 
The  chapter  is  a  register  of  the  warriors  who  allied  themselves 
with  David  at  Ziklag,  at  Adullam,  and  at  Hebron.  The  first  part, 
verses  1-22,  refers  to  his  fighting  men  during  the  days  of  Saul ; 
the  latter  part,  verses  23-40,  registers  the  warriors  who  rallied 
round  David  in  Hebron  on  SauPs  defeat.  The  whole  chapter  is 
the  original  work  of  the  chronicler,  and  its  sources  are  no  longer 
extant ;  but  its  material  is  derived  '  undoubtedly  from  very  ancient 
sources,  although  the  chronicler  here  and  there  adds  a  few  words 
in  his  own  style'  (Ewald). 

(i)  xii.  1-22.    David's  earliest  foUotvers. 

1-7.      Benjamite  Warriors  with  David  at  Ziklag. 

1.  Ziklag-:  probably  the  modern  Zuheilike,  in  the  plains  of 
Philistia,  some  eleven  miles  south-east  of  Gaza.  The  town  was 
assigned  to  Simeon  at  the  conquest ;  but  it  passed  under  the  power 
of  the  Philistines,  and  was  presented  by  Achish  to  David  on  his 
becoming  his  vassal  (i  Sam.  xxvii.  1-7).  Here  David  resided  for 
fourteen  months,  and  his  standard  was  joined  by  numerous  Ben- 
jamite freebooters. 

T3ecause  of  Saul.  One  cannot  fail  to  note  how  completely  the 
chronicler  ignores  the  kingship  of  Saul,  as  an  apostate  who  had 
placed  himself  outside  the  channel  of  the  divine  purpose  for 
Israel,  and  how  little  space  he  devotes  to  such  events  of  David's 
career  as  his  Philistine  alliance. 


I    CHRONICLES  12.  2-8.     Ch 


99 


Kish  :  and  they  were  among  the  mighty  men,  his  helpers 
in  war.     They  were  armed  with  bows,  and  could  use  both  2 
the  right  hand  and  the  left  in  slinging  stones  and  in 
shooting   arrows   from   the   bow ;    they   were   of  Saul's 
brethren   of  Benjamin.     The   chief  was   Ahiezer,   then  3 
Joash,  the  sons  of  Shemaah  the  Gibeathite ;  and  Jeziel, 
and  Pelet,   the  sons  of  Azmaveth;   and  Beracah,  and 
Jehu  the  Anathothite ;   and  Ishmaiah  the  Gibeonite,  a  4 
mighty  man  among  the  thirty,  and  over  the  thirty ;  and 
Jeremiah,  and  Jahaziel,  and  Johanan,  and  Jozabad  the 
Gederathite ;    Eluzai,  and   Jerimoth,  and   Bealiah,  and  5 
Shemariah,  and   Shephatiah  the  Haruphite  ;    Elkanah,  6 
and  Isshiah,  and  Azarel,  and  Joezer,  and  Jashobeam,  the 
Korahites  ;  and  Joelah,  and  Zebadiah,  the  sons  of  Jeroham  ^ 
of  Gedor.     And  of  the  Gadites  there  separated  themselves  g 
unto  David  to  the  hold  in  the  wilderness,  mighty  men  of 

2.  Saul's  brethren  :  members  of  the  same  tribe  are  meant,  not 
relatives. 

3.  the  Gibeathite:  a  native  of  Saul's  own  town  of  Gibeah, 
the   modern   Tell-el-Ful,    four   miles   north    of  Jerusalem. 

the  Anathothite  :  a  native  of  Anathoth,  the  modern  '  Anata/ 
north-east  of  Jerusalem. 

4.  Ishmaiah  is  not  mentioned  in  the  hst  of  '  The  Thirty  '  given 
in  ch.  xi,  although  here  called  their  chief. 

Gederathite :  a  native  of  Gedera,  in  the  lowlands  of  Northern 
Judah. 

5.  Haruphite:  a  member  of  the  family  named  in  Neh.  vii.  24 
as  B'ne  Hariph. 

6.  Korahites:  the  late  priestly  guild  of  singers.  Though  they 
belonged  to  the  tribe  of  Levi,  they  are  named  here  as  having 
probably  been  incorporated  with  the  Benjamites. 

xii.  8-18.  David's  Warriors  in  the  ^  hold.'  The  Gadite  and 
Benjamite  warriors  here  named  joined  David  during  the  first  year 
of  his  flight  from  Saul  (r  Sam.  xxii-xxiv),  and  were  rewarded  by 
being  made  captains  of  the  outlaw  band,  which  he  recruited  from 
the  discontented  and  oppressed  of  all  the  tribes  till  it  numbered 
600  men.  Their  names  would  probably  be  preserved  with  pride 
by  their  tribesmen. 

8.  the  hold  in  the  wilderness.  No  single  stronghold  is  here 
H   2 


loo  I   CHRONICLES  12.  9-18.     Ch 

valour,  men  trained  for  war,  that  could  handle  shield  and 

spear ;  whose  faces  were  like  the  faces  of  lions,  and  they 

9  were  as  swift  as  the  roes  upon  the  mountains ;  Ezer  the 

10  chief,  Obadiah  the  second,  Eliab  the  third  ;  Mishmannah 

Ti  the  fourth,  Jeremiah  the  fifth;  Attai  the  sixth,  Eliel  the 

13  seventh;  Johanan  the  eighth,  Elzabad  the  ninth;  Jere- 

14  miah  the  tenth,  Machbannai  the  eleventh.  These  of  the 
sons  of  Gad  were  captains  of  the  host :  he  that  was  least 
was  equal  to  an  hundred,  and  the  greatest  to  a  thousand. 

15  These  are  they  that  went  over  Jordan  in  the  first  month, 
when  it  had  overflown  all  its  banks  ;  and  they  put  to 
flight  all  them  of  the  valleys,  both  toward  the  east,  and 

16  toward   the   west.     And  there  came  of  the  children  of 

17  Benjamin  and  Judah  to  the  hold  unto  David.  And 
David  went  out  to  meet  them,  and  answered  and  said 
unto  them,  If  ye  be  come  peaceably  unto  me  to  help  me, 
mine  heart  shall  be  knit  unto  you :  but  if  ye  he  come  to 
betray  me  to  mine  adversaries,  seeing  there  is  no  wrong 
in  mine  hands,  the  God  of  our  fathers  look  thereon,  and 

18  rebuke  it.     Then  the  spirit  came  upon  Amasai,  who  was 


referred  to.  David  occupied  various  mountain  refuges  in  the 
wilds  of  Judah,  and  the  aid  of  such  men  of  miHtary  prowess  as  the 
eleven  Gadite  heroes  must  have  been  very  welcome  to  him  during 
his  flight  from  Saul.  We  are  unable  to  determine  the  time  when 
the  exploit  of  verse  15  was  performed  ;  but  it  evidently  represents 
deeds  wrought  in  the  defence  of  David.  To  cross  the  Jordan 
when  swollen  to  a  rushing  torrent  by  the  melting  snows  of 
Lebanon  and  then  make  a  victorious  raid  into  the  plains  demanded 
considerable  prowess. 

xii.  16-18.  These  verses  record  the  advent  of  a  band  of  warriors 
from  Benjamin  and  Judah,  giving  the  name  of  their  chief  alone. 
David  held  a  parley  with  the  new  recruits  to  learn  whether  they 
were  trustworthy  men  or  mere  emissaries  of  Saul.  Their  spokes- 
men voiced  their  determination  to  be  loyal  to  David  in  poetic  lan- 
guage. 

13.  the  spirit  came  upon  Amasai.  The  speaker  has  been 
variously  and  uncertainly  identified  with  Amasa  and  with  Abishai, 


I   CHRONICLES  12.  19-22.     Ch  lor 

chief  of  the  thirty,  and  he  said^  Thine  are  we,  David,  and 
on  thy  side,  thou  son  of  Jesse  :    peace,  peace  be  unto 
thee,  and  peace  be  to  thine  helpers  ;  for  thy  God  helpeth 
thee.      Then   David   received   them,   and    made    them 
captains  of  the  band.     Of  Manasseh  also  there  fell  away  19 
some   to   David,    when   he   came   with   the    Philistines 
against  Saul  to  battle,  but  they  helped  them  not :   for 
the  lords  of  the  Philistines  upon  advisement  sent  him 
away,  saying.  He  will  fall  away  to  his  master  Saul  to  the 
jeopardy  of  our  heads.     As  he  went  to  Ziklag,  there  fell  20 
to  him  of  Manasseh,  Adnah,  and  Jozabad,  and  Jediael, 
and   Michael,  and   Jozabad,  and   Elihu,  and  Zillethai, 
captains  of  thousands  that  were  of  Manasseh.     And  they  21 
helped  David  against  the  band  of  rovers  :  for  they  were 
all  mighty  men  of  valour,  and  were  captains  in  the  host. 
For  from  day  to  day  there  came  to  David  to  help  him,  22 
until  it  was  a  great  host,  like  the  host  of  God. 

The  inspiration  of  the  Divine  Spirit  is  recognized  as  the  guiding 
factor  in  the  conduct  of  the  troop  of  warriors  ;  and,  as  usual,  the 
utterance  of  men  under  the  influence  of  a  higher  Power  is  re- 
presented as  taking  poetical  shape.  Although  the  language  of  the 
text  bears  no  trace  of  its  earliest  and  perfect  poetical  form,  it  can 
still  be  recognized  as  poetry  by  its  parallelism  : — 

To  thee  (we  belong),  O  David  ; 

and  with  thee  (we  stand),  O  son  of  Jesse  : 

Peace,  peace,  to  thee, 

and  peace  to  thy  helpers  ; 

For  thy  helper  is  thy  God. 
xii.  19-22.  Recruits  from  Manasseh.  We  are  definitely  in- 
formed that  the  seven  captains  from  the  tribe  of  Manasseh  deserted 
from  Saul  to  David  on  the  eve  of  the  campaign  which  ended  in 
the  rout  at  Gilboa.  The  events  here  referred  to  are  narrated  in 
I  Sam.  xxix.  2-1 1.  David  had  resolved  to  be  loyal  to  his  patron 
and  overlord,  Achish  of  Oath,  even  though  it  involved  war  upon 
his  countrymen  ;  but  the  Philistine  chiefs  distrusted  him,  and 
insisted  upon  his  dismissal.  At  this  point  the  recruits  from 
Manasseh  joined  him  and  proved  a  valuable  aid  in  avenging  the 
Amalekite  raid  upon  Ziklag. 

22.  The  verse  is  a  summary  of  the  facts  concerning  the  con* 


102  I   CHRONICLES  12.  23-25.     Ch 

23  And  these  are  the  numbers  of  the  heads  of  them  that 
were  armed  for  war,  which  came  to  David  to  Hebron,  to 
turn  the  kingdom  of  Saul  to  him,  according  to  the  word 

-14  of  the  Lord.  The  children  of  Judah  that  bare  shield 
and  spear  were  six  thousand  and  eight  hundred,  armed 

25  for  war.  Of  the  children  of  Simeon,  mighty  men  of 
valour  for  the  war,  seven  thousand  and  one  hundred. 


stant  accession  of  Israelite  warriors  to  David.  The  band  of 
adherents  grew  steadily  throughout  his  outlaw  days,  and  must 
have  received  a  large  accession  after  the  carnage  at  Gilboa.  The 
courage  and  strength  of  his  bands  led  the  chronicler  to  describe 
them  as  '  like  the  host  of  God.' 

(2)  xii.  23-40.  77/1?  King-makers  of  Hebron.  The  discrepancies 
between  this  narrative  and  the  earlier  histories  are  more 
apparent  than  real.  It  is,  indeed,  implied  here  that  so  soon  as 
Saul  fell  the  Philistines  abandoned  their  conquests,  so  that  the 
leaders  and  people  from  all  the  tribes  were  able  to  gather  in  their 
thousands  to  acclaim  David  king  at  Hebron.  Thus  the  whole  of 
David's  reign  of  seven  and  a  half  years  at  Hebron,  the  long  con- 
flict with  the  house  of  Saul,  and  the  gradual  extension  of  David's 
ascendancy  over  the  northern  tribes  are  passed  over  in  silence. 
The  early  days  of  the  monarchy  of  David  are  so  stripped  of 
all  derogatory  features  as  to  seem  to  rise  in  a  blaze  of  glory  which 
did  not  really  exist.  Yet  the  modern  charge  levelled  against  the 
chronicler  of  perverting  history  is  mitigated  when  we  remember 
how  frequently  he  refers  his  readers  to  the  contemporaty  records, 
where  the  supplementary  facts  were  stated.  Our  narrative,  then, 
is  a  condensed  representation  of  the  event  which  ultimately  took 
place,  when  all  Israel  finally  acknowledged  the  divine  call  of 
David,  ratifying  his  selection  unanimously  and  enthusiastically. 
Observe  that  there  is  no  note  of  time  either  here  or  in  the  briefer 
record  of  the  national  acquiescence  in  David's  kingship  given 
in  xi.  1-3. 

Various  questions  are  evoked  by  the  enumeration  of  the  warriors 
who  assembled  at  Hebron.  Evidently  the  figures  refer  to  the 
entire  bands  ('heads'  of  verse  23)  which  mustered  at  the  pro- 
clamation of  David  as  king.  Judah's  contingent,  and  also  Simeon's, 
are  represented  as  comparatively  insignificant;  but  these  tribes 
had  already  accepted  David's  rule  for  seven  and  a  half  years,  and 
needed  not  to  send  a  large  contingent  to  the  recognition  ceremony. 
If  the  Benjamites  were  also  few,  it  was  probably  accounted  for 
by  the  distrust  existing  in  Saul's  tribesmen  towards  the  late  king's 


I   CHRONICLES  12.  26-29.     Ch 


io;5 


Of  the  children  of  Levi  four  thousand  and  six  hundred.  26 
And  Jehoiada  was  the  leader  of  the  house  of  Aaron,  and  27 
with  him  were  three  thousand  and  seven  hundred ;  and  28 
Zadok,  a  young  man  mighty  of  valour,  and  of  his  father's 
house  twenty  and  two  captains.     And  of  the  children  of  39 


outlawed  son-in-law.  Ephraim,  too,  may  have  been  influenced  by 
its  hereditary  jealousy  for  Judah  to  send  but  few  representatives 
as  compared  with  the  half  tribe  of  Manasseh.  And,  again,  the 
large  contingents  from  Zebulun  and  Naphtali  only  speak  of  the 
prosperity  of  their  more  peaceful  districts. 
The  numbers  actually  given  are  as  follows  :  — 


Judah      

6,800 

Simeon 

7,100 

Levi         

4,600 

With  Jehoiada       ... 

WithZadok    

Benjamin         

Ephraim           

Half  Manasseh 

3»700 

(8i4(?:j 

3.000 
20,800 
18,000 

22  captains. 

Issachar          .,       ... 
Zebulun           

50,000 

300  captains  and  their  men, 

Naphtali          

Dan         

37,000 
28,600 

[,ooo  captains. 

Asher      

Trans-Jordanic  tribes 

40,000 
120.000 

339,600        1,222  captains, 
(or  347,814  including  the   estimate   of  Issa- 
char and  Zadok's  men). 

Although  the  figures  are  evidently  only  round  numbers,  there 
is  no  cause  for  doubting  their  general  accuracy.  The  omission  of 
the  numbers  for  Issachar  is  probably  an  error  arising  in  transcrip- 
tion from  the  fuller  records  which  must  have  been  available  to 
the  chronicler. 

2*7.  Jehoiada:  probably  identical  with  the  father  of  Benaiah 
(cf.  xi.  27),  and  designated  here  'leader  of  Aaron'  because  he  was 
head  of  the  priestly  clans  which  joined  David  at  Hebron. 

28.  Zadok :  he  afterwards  became  high-priest.  The  prosperity 
of  the  house  of  Eleazar  is  here  shown  by  the  fact  that  it  could 
muster  two  and  twenty  captains,  or  clan-leaders.  If  the  basis  of 
representation  be  the  same  for  all  the  contingents,  as  Naphtali 
had  1,000  captains  to  37,000  menv  then  Zadok  brought  814  men 
with  hira. 


I04  I   CHRONICLES  12.  30-39.     Ch 

Benjamin,   the   brethren  of  Saul,  three   thousand  :   for 
hitherto  the  greatest  part  of  them  had  kept  their  alle- 

30  giance  to  the  house  of  Saul.  And  of  the  children  of 
Ephraim  twenty  thousand  and  eight  hundred,  mighty 
men  of  valour,    famous    men    in   their    fathers'   houses. 

31  And  of  the  half  tribe  of  Manasseh  eighteen  thousand, 
which  were  expressed  by  name,  to  come  and  make  David 

32  king.  And  of  the  children  of  Issachar,  men  that  had 
understanding  of  the  times,  to  know  what  Israel  ought 
to  do ;  the  heads  of  them  were  two  hundred ;  and  all 

33  their  brethren  were  at  their  commandment.  Of  Zebulun, 
such  as  were  able  to  go  out  in  the  host,  that  could  set 
the  battle  in  array,  with  all  manner  of  instruments  of 
war,  fifty  thousand  ;  and  that  could  order  the  battle  arra}\ 

34  and  were  not  of  double  heart.  And  of  Naphtali  a  thou- 
sand captains,  and  with  them  with  shield  and  spear  thirty 

35  and  seven  thousand.  And  of  the  Danites  that  could  set 
the  battle  in  array,  twenty  and  eight  thousand  and  six 

36  hundred.  And  of  Asher,  such  as  were  able  to  go  out  in 
the  host,  that  could  set  the  battle  in  array,  forty  thousand. 

37  And  on  the  other  side  of  Jordan,  of  the  Reubenites,  and 
the  Gadites,  and  of  the  half  tribe  of  Manasseh,  with  all 
manner  of  instruments  of  war  for  the  battle,  an  hundred 

38  and  twenty  thousand.  All  these,  being  men  of  war,  that 
could  order  the  battle  array,  came  with  a  perfect  heart  to 
Hebron,  to  make  David  king  over  all  Israel :  and  all  the 
rest  also  of  Israel  were  of  one  heart  to  make  David  king. 

39  And  they  were  there  with  David  three  days,  eating  and 


32.  Issachar :  on  the  same  basis  of  representation  the  tribal 
contingent  must  have  numbered  7.400  men. 

39.  eating-  and  drinkini?  :  the  clansmen  of  Judah  had  prepared 
for  a  festive  celebration  of  the  proclamation  of  their  leader  as  king 
of  reunited  Israel.    But  the  'joy  in  Israel '  took  the  form  of  a  great 


I   CHRONICLES  12.  40.— 13.  i.     Ch        105 

drinking  :  for  their  brethren  had  made  preparation  for 
them.  Moreover  they  that  were  nigh  unto  them,  even  as  40 
far  as  Issachar  and  Zebulun  and  NaphtaH,  brought  bread 
on  asses,  and  on  camels,  and  on  mules,  and  on  oxen, 
victual  of  meal,  cakes  of  figs,  and  clusters  of  raisins,  and 
wine,  and  oil,  and  oxen,  and  sheep  in  abundance  :  for 
there  was  joy  in  Israel. 

And  David  consulted  with  the  captains  of  thousands  13 

national  festival  in  which  all  the  tribes  played  a  part  in  preparing 
for  the  festivities. 

(3)  xiii-xvi.  Early  days  of  David's  Reign. 
The  register  of  David's  heroes  which  extends  from  xi.  lo  to 
xii.  40  has  interrupted  the  orderly  narrative  of  history  upon 
which  the  chronicler  had  set  out  in  ch.  x.  He  has  ahead}' 
described  the  conquest  of  Jebus  and  the  establishment  of  Jerusalem 
as  the  capital  of  the  reunited  people.  He  now  continues  the 
narrative  with  an  account  of  the  removal  of  the  Ark  to  the  capital, 
a  statement  regarding  David's  building  operations,  and  the  increase 
of  his  harem,  and  with  a  review  of  the  organization  of  the  national 
religious  life. 

The  four  chapters  of  this  section  are  derived,  with  various 
changes,  from  the  narrative  of  2  Samuel,  thus  : — 

xiii.  6-14       2  Sam.  vi.  2-4. 

xiv.  1-16       ,,       v.  11-25. 

XV.  25-29      ,,       vi.  12-16. 

xvi.  1-3         „       vi.  17-19. 

xvi.  8-22       Psalm  cv.  1-15. 

Throughout  the  section  the  most  noticeable  features  are  the 
prominence  given  to  the  Levites  and  the  tacit  assumption  that  the 
regulations  of  the  priestly  code  had  been  observed  from  the  early 
days  of  David.  The  chronicler  is  reading  the  past  in  the  light  of 
his  own  day. 

(a)  xiii.  Removal  of  the  Ark  from  Kiriath-jearim. 
The  victory  of  David  over  the  alien  inhabitants  of  the  fortress 
of  Jebus  was  a  brilliant  inauguration  of  the  new  monarchy;  but 
the  determination  to  ensconce  within  the  new  capital  the  sacred 
symbol  of  the  presence  of  Jehovah  with  His  people  is  an  evident 
proof  of  the  political  foresight  and  religious  enthusiasm  of  the 
iiing.  The  presence  of  the  Ark  added  a  glamour  of  sanctity  to  the 
royal  city  ;  and  its  removal  thither  afforded  another  opportunity 
for  a  national  gathering  under  David's  auspices.     Prior  to  the 


io6  i    CHRONICLES  13.  2.     Ch 

2  and  of  hundreds,  even  with  every  leader.  And  David 
said  unto  all  the  assembly  of  Israel,  If  it  seem  good  unto 
you,  and  if  it  be  of  the  Lord  our  God,  let  us  send  abroad 

bringing  up  of  the  Ark  to  Jerusalem  there  had  been  no  authorized 
and  authoritative  centre  for  the  national  worship.  Ancient  shrines 
existed  and  rehgious  rites  were  performed  in  many  spots,  and 
the  worship  of  Jehovah  upon  the  high-places  was  recognized  as 
legitimate.  Prophets  (e.  g.  Samuel  at  Bethlehem)  and  kings  (e.g. 
Saul  at  Gilgal)  were  accustomed  to  lead  the  people  in  worship 
and  sacrifice,  but  there  was  no  central  sanctuary  extant.  The 
lodging  of  the  Ark  in  Jerusalem  was  the  first  step  in  the  centraliza- 
tion of  the  religious  life  of  Israel,  which  proceeded  on  a  perfectl3' 
natural  course  under  the  Levitical  and  priestly  systems  until  the 
Deuteronomic  code  secured  its  authoritative  adoption. 

xiii.  1-5.  The  Ark  of  God.  The  consultation  of  David  with 
the  military  chieftains  is  not  recorded  in  the  parallel  account  in 
2  Sam.  vi,  but  the  earlier  narrative  is  of  such  a  nature  as  to  lead 
us  to  suspect  that  something  has  been  omitted.  The  mustering  of 
30,000  men  from  all  Israel  (2  Sam.  vi.  i)  implies  that  a  warlike 
expedition  was  contemplated,  and  it  needs  no  great  knowledge  of 
the  relations  between  Israel  and  her  neighbours  to  suppose  that 
the  Philistines  were  the  object  of  the  campaign  in  question.  This 
supposition,  moreover,  throws  light  upon  the  question  of  the 
popular  attitude  towards  the  Ark^  It  is  highly  probable  that 
the  Philistines  had  maintained  their  authorit}'  over  the  cities  of 
the  Gibeonite  league,  of  which  Kiriath-jearim  was  a  member  ;  so 
that  the  Ark,  although  allowed  to  return  to  territory  belonging  by 
right  to  Israel,  had  virtually  remained  under  Philistine  power  ever 
since  the  Hebrew  defeat  in  the  days  of  Eli.  If,  now,  David  had 
returned  from  a  successful  campaign  against  the  Philistines, 
which  had  restored  Kiriath-jearim  to  Israel,  it  was  at  length 
possible  to  turn  attention  to  the  national  symbol  of  Jehovah's 
presence.  Such  highly  probable  suppositions  would  further 
explain  the  unbroken  silence  of  Hebrew  historians  regarding  the 
Ark  in  the  period  between  Eli  and  David.  At  the  same  time,  this 
neglect  of  the  Ark  is  almost  inconceivable  if  during  all  this  time 
it  had  still  been  in  the  uninterrupted  possession  of  the  people  of 
Israel. 

1.  There  is  no  indication  of  time,  but  the  events  recorded  here 
followed  the  capture  of  Jebus  (xi.  1-9)  and  the  probable  subsequent 
campaign  against  Philistia. 


'  Cf.  Kennedy,  on  '  Samuel,'  in  C«*«/Mry5«3/(?,  Appendix,  for  a  full 
discussion  of  the  place  occupied  by  the  Ark  in  Israel. 


I   CHRONICLES  13.  3-5.     Ch  107 

every  where  unto  our  brethren  that  are  left  in  all  the  land 
of  Israel,  with  whom  the  priests  and  Levites  are  in  their 
cities  that  have  suburbs,  that  they  may  gather  themselves 
unto  us  :  and  let  us  bring  again  the  ark  of  our  God  to  us  :  3 
for  we  sought  not  unto  it  in  the  days  of  Saul.     And  all  4 
the  assembly  said  that  they  would  do  so :  for  the  thing 
was   right   in   the  eyes   of  all   the   people.     So   David  5 
assembled  all  Israel  together,  from  Shihor  the  brook  of 

2.  priests  and  Iievites.  There  is  no  mention  of  Levites  in  the 
narrative  of  Samuel.  Later  conditions  are  reflected  in  the 
chronicler's  description. 

3.  the  ark  of  our  God  :  Heb.  Aron,  the  wooden  chest  in  which 
were  kept  the  Tables  of  stone  (2  Chron.  v.  10).  It  is  known  by 
various  titles  which  are  to  some  extent  peculiar  to  the  schools  of 
religious  thought  extant  during  different  ages  in  Hebrew  history. 
The  earliest  title,  found  in  the  prophetic  school  of  writers  and 
the  earl}'^  histories,  is  'the  Ark  of  Jehovah.'  The  Deuteronomic 
school  preferred  the  title  '■  Ark  of  the  Covenant,'  and  the  author 
of  Deuteronomy  informs  his  readers  that  it  was  made  of  acacia 
wood  (x.  3).  The  priestly  school  employed  the  title  *  Ark  of  the 
Testimony,'  and  one  of  their  number  describes  it  as  overlaid  with 
gold  and  surmounted  by  an  elaborate  lid  (Exod.  xxv).  As  the 
chronicler  mainly  compiled  his  history  from  the  earlier  works  of 
the  prophetic  school,  he  employed  the  titles  used  in  the  Hexateuch 
(JE  section)  and  early  histories  alongside  of  later  expressions. 
The  following  titles  are  actually  found  in  his  work  : — 

The  Ark       18  times. 

Ark  of  God 11     ,, 

Ark  of  our  God i     ,, 

Ark  of  thy  strength 2     ,, 

Ark  of  the  Covenant         ...  11     ,, 

Ark  of  Jehovah  5     ., 

He  invariably  shows  his  sense  of  the  sanctity  of  the  Ark. 

soug'ht  not  unto  it  in  the  days  of  Saul.  Probably  the  long 
residence  of  the  Ark  within  the  sphere  of  the  Philistine  power 
had  produced  a  general  indifference  to  it  during  Saul's  time, 

4.  A  great  national  assembl}''  is  convened  for  the  solemn  convoy 
of  the  sacred  Ark  to  Jerusalem.  But  the  sway  of  David  at  this 
time  was  scarcely  so  extensive  as  the  territory  whence  the  people 
are  said  to  have  been  summoned. 

5.  Shihor  of  Egypt :  the  modern  El  Arish,  a  wady  fifty  miles 
south-west  of  Gaza,  which  divided  Syria  from  Egypt. 


io8  I    CHRONICLES    13.  6-10.     Ch  H 

Egypt  even  unto  the  entering  in  of  Hamath,  to  bring  the 

6  ark  of  God  from  Kiriath-jearim.  [H]  And  David  went 
up,  and  all  Israel,  to  Baalah,  that  is,  to  Kiriath-jearim, 
which  belonged  to  Judah,  to  bring  up  from  thence  the 
ark  of  God,  the  Lord  that  sitteth  upon  the  cherubim, 

7  which  is  called  by  the  Name.  And  they  carried  the  ark 
of  God  upon  a  new  cart,  and  brought  it  out  of  the  house 

8  of  Abinadab  :  and  Uzza  and  Ahio  drave  the  cart.  And 
David  and  all  Israel  played  before  God  with  all  their 
might :  even  with  songs,  and  with  harps,  and  with 
psalteries,  and  with  timbrels,  and  with  cymbals,  and  with 

9  trumpets.  And  when  they  came  unto  the  threshing-floor 
of  Chidon,  Uzza  put  forth  his  hand  to  hold  the  ark ;  for 

10  the  oxen  stumbled.     And  the  anger  of  the  Lord  was 

the  entering"  in  of  Hamath:  the  mountain  pass  between 
Hermon  and  Lebanon,  some  distance  south  of  Hamath  (the 
modern  Hama  on  the  river  Orontes),  was  regarded  as  the  northern 
limit  of  Palestine. 

xiii.  6-14.  First  Attempt  to  bring  up  the  Ark.  The  design  of 
bringing  the  Ark  to  the  citadel  of  Zion  was  hindered  by  an 
unfavourable  occurrence  ;  it  was,  however,  reattempted  with 
success  three  months  later.  The  chronicler  changes  the  earlier 
account  in  many  minor  points  to  bring  it  into  harmony  with  the 
thought  of  his  day. 

6.  to  Baalah,  that  is,  to  Kiriath-jearim  :  Kiriath-jearim  (*  the 
city  of  the  Woods  ')  lay  on  the  western  border  of  Benjamin  in 
Mount  Jearim,  nine  miles  west  of  Jerusalem.  It  is  probably  repre- 
sented by  the  modern  Khuret  'Erma,  south  of  the  mountains,  although 
others  associate  it  with  Kuriet  'Eneb  to  the  north.  The  fact  that 
the  Ark  rested  there  in  the  house  of  Abinadab  for  seventy  years 
was  the  probable  origin  of  the  alternative  name  Baalah  (from 
Baal,  '  Lord  ',  a  title  used  for  'Jehovah  ').  The  town  was  one  of 
the  four  included  in  the  Gibeonite  league  (Joshua  ix.  17),  and 
probably  contained  many  Philistine  inhabitants  at  this  time. 

called  by  the  Name  :  i.  e.  where  Jehovah  was  invoked  in 
worship.  The  latter  part  of  the  verse,  descriptive  of  the  Ark. 
bears  the  appearance  of  being  a  late  insertion. 

*7.  Abinadab.     Cf.  i  Sam.  vii.  i. 

9.  Chidon :  called  Nacon  in  2  Samuel  vi.  6  and  omitted  in  LXX. 

10-11.  There  is  a  critical  tendency  to  day  to  regard  this  incident 


I    CHRONICLES    13.  n— 14.  i.     H  109 

kindled  against  Uzza,  and  he  smote  him,  because  he  put 
forth  his  hand  to  the  ark  :  and  there  he  died  before  God. 
And  David  was  displeased,  because  the  Lord  had  broken  n 
forth  upon  Uzza :  and  he  called  that  place  Perez-uzza, 
unto  this  day.     And  David  was  afraid  of  God  that  day,  12 
saying,  How  shall  I  bring  the  ark  of  God  home  to  me  ? 
So  David  removed  not  the  ark  unto  him  into  the  city  13 
of  David,  but  carried  it  aside  into  the  house  of  Obed-edom 
the  Gittite.     And  the  ark  of  God  remained  with  the  14 
family  of  Obed-edom  in  his  house  three  months  :  and  the 
Lord  blessed  the  house  of  Obed-edom,  and  all   that 
he  had. 

And  Hiram  king  of  Tyre  sent  messengers  to  David,  14 


as  unhistorical  and  to  treat  it  as  a  traditional  explanation  of  the 
place-name  Perez-Uzza.  The  chronicler's  view,  however,  is 
that  the  Ark  was  a  symbol  of  Jehovah's  presence,  so  sacred  that 
it  could  not  be  touched  with  impunity  even  from  the  best  of 
motives.  No  moral  transgression  is  implied  in  the  thoughtless 
rashness  of  Uzza,  but  rather  the  unapproachable  sanctity  of 
Jehovah  Himself  is  emphasized.  The  whole  proceedings  were  in 
open  violation  of  the  regulations  laid  down  in  Num.  iv.  5,  15. 

13.  Obed-edom  the  Gittite.  Much  ingenuity  has  been  exer- 
cised in  explaining  the  act  of  David  in  entrusting  the  sacred  Ark 
to  a  Philistine  guardian.  Some  critics  (e.  g.  T.  K.  Cheyne)  hold 
that  the  Ark  had  never  really  left  Philistine  territory,  being 
merely  shifted  from  the  temple  of  Dagon  to  a  private  house,  and 
that  it  was  in  a  great  campaign  against  Gath  (cf.  2  Sam.  xxi.  20) 
that  David  recovered  the  Ark  and  subsequently  carried  it  to  Baalah, 
whence  he  removed  it  to  Jerusalem.  This  is  ingenious,  but  it  is 
far  more  probable,  and  does  less  violence  to  the  narrative,  to  regard 
Obed-edom  as  a  naturalized  Philistine  enjoying  all  the  religious 
privileges  of  the  worshippers  of  Jehovah.  David  would  have  no 
antipathy  to  such  a  man,  as  we  see  from  the  fact  that  he  sub- 
sequently chose  his  bodyguard  from  Philistine  warriors.  In 
XV.  18,  24  we  find  an  Obed-edom  actually  enrolled  among  the 
Levitical  doorkeepers. 

(,6)  xiv.     David's  Buildings^  Harem,  and  Early  Wars. 
The  chronicler  at  this  point  departs  from  the  order  of  events  as 
narrated  in  2  Sam.  vi,  and  returns  to  matters  treated  earlier  in 


no  I    CHRONICLES    14.  2-7.     H 

and  cedar  trees,  and  masons,  and  carpenters,  to  build  him 

2  an  house.  And  David  perceived  that  the  Lord  had 
established  him  king  over  Israel,  for  his  kingdom  was 
exalted  on  high,  for  his  people  Israel's  sake. 

3  And  David  took  more  wives  at  Jerusalem  :  and  David 

4  begat  more  sons  and  daughters.  And  these  are  the 
names   of  the  children   which   he   had   in   Jerusalem; 

5  Shammua,   and   Shobab,    Nathan,    and   Solomon ;   and 

6  Ibhar,    and    Elishua,    and    Elpelet ;    and  Nogah,    and 

7  Nepheg,  and  Japhia ;  and  Elishama,  and  Beeliada, 
and  Eliphelet. 


2  Samuel,  but  all  of  which  clearly  display  David's  zeal  for  the  new 
kingdom  (cf.  2  Sam.  v.  11-25). 

xiv.  I,  2.  Royal  Architecture.  The  king's  first  concern  was  for 
the  construction  of  a  palace  which  should  be  a  fit  sign  of  his 
power.  In  this  he  was  aided  by  the  friendly  offices  of  the  king 
of  Tyre. 

1.  Hiram  :  the  dates  of  the  reign  of  Hiram  I  (cf.  Joseph.,  c.  Ap. 
i.  18)  are  generally  accepted  as  968-935  B.C.  If  we  regard  this 
as  accurate  then  the  events  of  this  chapter  must  have  occurred 
towards  the  close  of  David's  reign  and  are  misplaced  here  ;  for 
Solomon,  whose  friend  Hiram  was,  apparently  reigned  from 
971  to  932  B.C.  Of  course  the  statement  of  Josephus,  which  is 
based  upon  the  Chronicle  of  Meander  of  Ephesus,  may  be  in- 
correct;  but  it  is  more  probable  that  the  name  of  Hiram  has  crept 
into  our  text  by  an  error  for  that  of  his  father  Abiba'al.  The 
connexion  implies  that  the  king  of  Tyre,  who  probably  was  in 
full  sympathy  with  David  as  a  common  enemy  of  the  Philistines, 
sent  congratulations  to  David  upon  his  accession,  and  that  David 
thereupon  requested  help  in  his  schemes  of  palace-building. 
Tyre  was  noted  for  its  skilled  craftsmen. 

3  7.  The  Royal  Harem.  It  is  entirely  in  accord  with  early 
oriental  ideas  that  the  power  and  glory  of  a  king  should  be 
reflected  in  the  size  of  his  harem.  The  names  of  David's  new 
wives  are  not  given  ;  but  the  names  of  the  thirteen  sons  born  to 
him  in  Jerusalem  are  given  as  in  r  Chron.  iii.  5-8,  with  only 
orthographical  variations.  The  parallel  list  in  2  Sam.  v.  15,  16 
omits  the  names  of  Elpelet  and  Nogah,  and  agrees  with  i  Chron. 
iii.  8  in  reading  Eliada  for  the  more  correct  Beeliada. 


I    CHRONICLES    14.  S-12.     H  iii 

And   when    the    Philistines    heard    that    David    was  8 
anointed  king  over  all  Israel,  all  the  Philistines  went  up 
to  seek  David :  and  David  heard  of  it,  and  went  out 
against  them.     Now  the  Philistines  had  come  and  made  9 
a  raid  in  the  valley  of  Rephaim.     And  David  inquired  of  10 
God,  saying,  Shall  I  go  up  against  the  Philistines?  and 
mk  thou  deliver  them  into  mine  hand  ?     And  the  Lord 
said  unto  him.  Go  up ;  for  I  will  deliver  them  into  thine 
hand.     So  they  came  up  to   Baal-perazim,  and   David  n 
smote  them  there;  and  David  said,  God  hath  broken 
mine  enemies  by  mine  hand,  like  the  breach  of  waters. 
Therefore  they  called  the  name  of  that  place  Baal-perazim. 
And  they  left  their  gods  there;  and  David  gave  com-  12 


xiv.  8-17.  Philistine  Campaigns,  Considerable  obscurity  sur- 
rounds the  question  of  David's  relationship  to  the  Philistines  in 
the  early  part  of  his  career.  We  know,  of  course,  that  he  willingly 
put  himself  under  the  protection  of  Achish  in  the  year  preceding 
the  Philistine  victory  of  Gilboa.  But  it  is  highly  probable  that  he 
continued  to  acknowledge  the  suzerainty  of  the  Philistines  for 
several  3'ears  to  come,  reigning  at  Hebron  with  the  sanction  of 
the  conquerors  of  Saul.  Meantime  he  won  his  way  by  diplomacy 
and  b3'  increasing  power.  When,  however,  he  was  recognized 
as  king  by  the  reunited  tribes  of  Israel,  the  Philistines  determined 
to  exert  their  strength  and  humiliate  a  vassal  who  was  attaining 
a  menacing  degree  of  independence.  Hence  the  campaigns 
here  recorded.  The  parallel  passage  in  2  Sam.  v  seems  to 
connect  this  campaign  with  a  period  prior  even  to  the  capture  of 
Jebus,  when  David  still  ruled  in  Hebron  (cf.  2  Sam.  v.  17-25  and 
xiii.  13). 

9.  valley  of  Kephaim :  cf.  note  on  xi.  16. 

10.  inquired  of  God.  This  is  the  usual  phrase  for  asking 
counsel  of  Jehovah  through  the  sacred  oracle.  The  questions 
were  put  in  such  a  manner  that  a  direct  affirmative  or  negative 
reply  could  be  given.  The  answer  in  this  case  is  in  apparent 
conflict,  but  in  real  agreement,  with  that  given  in  2  Samuel. 

12.  left  their  g-ods :  '  images  '  in  2  Sam.  v.  Probably  the 
chronicler  regarded  it  as  inconsistent  for  David  to  retain  such 
spoil,  and  therefore  added  the  statement  that  he  burned  the  idols 
in  accordance  with  the  injunctions  of  Deut.  vii.  5.  This  is  quite 
a  typical  addition  on  the  part  of  our  author. 


112        I    CHRONICLES    14.  13— 15.  i.     H  Ch 

13  mandment,  and  they  were  burned  with  fire.     And  the 

14  Philistines  yet  again  made  a  raid  in  the  valley.  And 
David  inquired  again  of  God ;  and  God  said  unto  him, 
Thou  shalt  not  go  up  after  them  :  turn  away  from  them, 
and  come  upon  them  over  against  the  mulberry  trees. 

15  And  it  shall  be,  when  thou  hearest  the  sound  of  marching 
in  the  tops  of  the  mulberry  trees,  that  then  thou  shalt  go 
out  to  battle :  for  God  is  gone  out  before  thee  to  smite 

16  the  host  of  the  Philistines.  And  David  did  as  God 
commanded    him :    and    they   smote   the   host   of  the 

17  Philistines  from  Gibeon  even  to  Gezer.  And  the  fame  of 
David  went  out  into  all  lands;  and  the  Lord  brought 
the  fear  of  him  upon  all  nations. 

15      [Ch]  And  David  made  him   houses   in  the  city  of 

14.  mulljerry  trees :  a  better  rendei-ing  is  '  baca-bushes.' 
The  exact  tree  intended  is  uncertain  :  but  the  leaves  were  of  such 
a  kind  as  to  make  a  sound  like  'weeping'  when  rustled  by  the 
breeze.  All  Semitic  races  regarded  trees  as  the  haunts  of  spirits 
and  as  means  of  guidance  by  omens. 

16.  from  Gibeon  even  to  Crezer:  the  Gibeon  in  question  must 
be  some  place  near  Jerusalem,  but  the  valley  along  which  the 
Philistine  flight  took  place  contains  several  towns  of  this  name. 
Gezer  is  the  modem  Tell-Jezer. 

17.  This  verse  is  a  characteristic  addition  of  the  chronicler's. 

(c)  xv-xvi,  3.  The  Ark  brought  fo  Jerusalem. 
The  authentic  original  narrative  of  the  successful  convoy  of  the 
Ark  to  Jerusalem  is  found  in  2  Sam.  vi.  11-23,  3"<^  ^^^  remarkable 
differences  between  it  and  our  present  narrative  can  have  but  one 
explanation.  The  chronicler  has  evidently  taken  the  facts  of  the 
earlier  record  and  given  them  a  modern  setting,  rewriting  the 
incident  so  as  to  present  what  might  have  been  the  course  of 
the  ceremony  if  the  Ark  had  been  transferred  to  the  capital  in 
the  fourth  century  b.c.  instead  of  what  actually  occurred 
in  the  tenth  century  B.C.  As  he  is  practically  writing  a  church- 
history,  he  deals  mainly  with  the  ecclesiastical  side  of  the 
function.  The  whole  ceremony  is  represented  as  an  elaborate- 
ly planned  ecclesiastical  affair  rather  than  as  a  popular  gathering; 
Levites  now  dominate  the  scene  ;  and  the  organization  is  as 
complete  as  it  was  in  the  days  succeeding  Ezra's  reforms.     Of 


I   CHRONICLES    15.  2-10.     Ch  113 

David;  and  he  prepared  a  place  for  the  ark  of  God, 
and  pitched  for  it  a  tent.     Then  David  said.  None  ought  2 
to  carry  the  ark  of  God  but  the  Levites  :  for  them  hath 
the  Lord  chosen  to  carry  the  ark  of  God,  and  to  minister 
unto  him  for  ever.     And  David  assembled  all  Israel  at  3 
Jerusalem,  to  bring  up  the  ark  of  the  Lord  unto  its  place, 
which  he  had   prepared   for   it.     And   David   gathered  4 
together  the  sons  of  Aaron,  and  the  Levites  :  of  the  sons  r> 
of  Kohath  ;  Uriel  the  chief,  and  his  brethren  an  hundred 
and  twenty  :  of  the  sons  of  Merari ;  Asaiah  the  chief,  and  6 
his  brethren  two  hundred  and  twenty :  of  the  sons  of  7 
Gershom;  Joel  the  chief,  and  his  brethren  an  hundred 
and   thirty :  of  the   sons   of  Elizaphan ;  Shemaiah   the  8 
chief,  and  his  brethren  two  hundred :  of  the  sons  of  9 
Hebron;  Eliel  the  chief,  and  his  brethren  fourscore:  of  10 

course  this  is  not  genuine  history  in  our  sense  of  the  term  ;  but 
early  events  are  presented  in  such  a  garb  as  to  render  them 
appreciable  to  the  uncritical  readers  of  the  compiler's  own  age. 
Changes  so  great  as  this  are  unlikely,  however,  to  be  entirely  the 
work  of  the  chronicler  ;  and  it  has  been  pointed  out  by  Kittel 
and  other  critics  that  more  hands  than  his  must  have  been  at 
work  here.  Signs  of  later  work  in  his  source  occur  in  such 
matters  as  the  sixfold  division  of  the  Levites  (verses  5-10), 
whereas  the  chronicler  really  knows  of  only  three  divisions  in 
David's  time  (xxiii.  i  ff.). 

XV.  I -16.     Renewed  Conference  regarding  the  transport  of  the  Ark. 

1.  prepared  a  place  for  the  ark  :  in  connexion  with  his  own 
palace-building  David  prepared  a  place  for  the  sacred  Ark, 
erecting  a  new  tent  for  it,  probably  after  the  model  of  the 
ancient  Tabernacle. 

2.  to  carry  the  ark:  the  regulations  of  Num.  i.  50,  iv.  15,  vii. 
9,  X.  17  determine  that  the  Levites  were  to  carry  the  Ark  when- 
ever it  required  to  be  moved,  the  duty  devolving  upon  the  sons  of 
Kohath,  with  whom  were  associated  the  Gershonites  and  the 
Merarites.  These  injunctions  had  been  disregarded  in  the  earlier 
popular  attempt  to  bring  up  the  Ark. 

4-10.  The  six  Levitical  clans  are  represented  as  being  summoned 
by  the  king  for  the  ecclesiastical  convoy  of  the  Ark.  They 
gathered  at  Jerusalem,   to  the  number  of  862  men,  under  the 

I 


114  I  CHRONICLES  15.  11-16.     Ch 

the   sons   of  Uzziel;    Amminadab   the   chief,  and    his 

11  brethren  an  hundred  and  twelve.  And  David  called  for 
Zadok  and  Abiathar  the  priests,  and  for  the  Levites,  for 
Uriel,    Asaiah,    and    Joel,    Shemaiah,    and    Eliel,    and 

12  Amminadab,  and  said  unto  them,  Ye  are  the  heads  of  the 
fathers'  houses  of  the  Levites  :  sanctify  yourselves,  both  ye 
and  your  brethren,  that  ye  may  bring  up  the  ark  of  the 
Lord,  the  God  of  Israel,  unto  the  place  that  I  have 

13  prepared  for  it.  For  because  ye  bare  it  not  at  the  first, 
the  Lord  our  God  made  a  breach  upon  us,  for  that 

14  we  sought  him  not  according  to  the  ordinance.  So 
the  priests  and  the  Levites  sanctified  themselves  to  bring 

15  up  the  ark  of  the  Lord,  the  God  of  Israel.  And  the 
children  of  the  Levites  bare  the  ark  of  God  upon  their 
shoulders  with  the  staves  thereon,  as  Moses  commanded 

16  according  to  the  word  of  the  Lord.  And  David  spake 
to  the  chief  of  the  Levites  to  appoint  their  brethren  the 
singers,  with  instruments  of  music,  psalteries  and  harps 

leadership  of  Uriel,  Asaiah,  Joel,  Shemaiah,  Eliel,  and  Amminadab. 
Their  numbers  are  differently  given  in  the  LXX. 

11.  Zadok  and  Abiathar:  joint  high-priests  at  the  time;  but 
the  chronicler  does  not  recognize  the  legitimacy  of  the  house  of 
Ithamar  in  his  genealogical  tables. 

12.  sanctify:  the  original  meaning  of  the  word  is  'to  set 
apart  for  sacred  uses,'  and,  in  the  present  case,  it  implied  the  due 
performance  of  the  rites  of  purification. 

13.  because  ye  bare  it  not :  the  failure  of  the  first  convoy  is 
traced  to  the  disregard  of  Levitic  regulations. 

15.  as  Moses  commanded:  cf.  Num.  vii.  9. 

16.  the  sing-ers:  David  is  consistently  represented  by  the 
chronicler  as  the  prime  organizer  of  the  musical  service  of  the 
Temple,  and  there  is  no  room  to  doubt  that  he  did  actually  lay 
the  foundation  of  the  elaborate  choirs  which  rendered  the  service 
of  praise  in  the  second  Temple.  As  to  the  instruments  mentioned 
here,  the  psaltery  resembled  a  long  box  with  convex  sounding- 
board,  over  which  wire  strings  were  stretched  ;  the /tar/>  would  be 
more  correctly  described  as  a  lute  ;  and  the  cymbal  was  a  brass 
instrument  to  which  was  attached  a  bell. 


I   CHRONICLES  15.  17-22.     Ch  115 

and  cymbals,  sounding  aloud  and  lifting  up  the  voice 
with  joy.     So  the  Levites  appointed  Heman  the  son  17 
of  Joel ;  and  of  his  brethren_,  Asaph  the  son  of  Berechiah ; 
and  of  the  sons  of  Merari  their  brethren,  Ethan  the  son  of 
Kushaiah;  and  with  them  their  brethren  of  the  second  18 
degree,  Zechariah,  Ben,  and  Jaaziel,  and  Shemiramoth, 
and  Jehiel,  and  Unni,  Eliab,  and  Benaiah,  and  Maaseiah, 
and    Mattithiah,    and    Eliphelehu,    and    Mikneiah,    and 
Obed-edom,  and  Jeiel,  the  doorkeepers.     So  the  singers,  19 
Heman,  Asaph,  and  Ethan,  ivere  appointed^  with  cymbals 
of  brass   to   sound  aloud ;   and   Zechariah,  and   Aziel,  20 
and   Shemiramoth,  and   Jehiel,  and   Unni,  and   EHab, 
and    Maaseiah,    and    Benaiah,    with    psalteries    set    to 
Alamoth ;  and  Mattithiah,  and  Eliphelehu,  and  Mikneiah,  31 
and  Obed-edom,  and  Jeiel,  and  Azaziah,  with  harps  set  to 
the  Sheminith,  to  lead.     And  Chenaniah,  chief  of  the  22 

XV.  17-24.  The  great  Procession.  The  procession  conveying 
the  Ark  evidently  took  the  following  order  : — At  the  head  came 
the  great  choir  of  vocalists  and  instrumentalists  under  the  leader- 
ship of  Heman,  Asaph,  and  Ethan  ;  in  the  centre  came  the  Ark, 
preceded  by  Chenaniah,  two  door-keepers  and  seven  priests  with 
trumpets,  and  followed  by  two  more  door-keepers  ;  lastly  the  king 
and  the  troops  brought  up  the  rear. 

17, 18.  The  leaders  of  song  and  the  custodians,  or  door-keepers, 
are  carefully  named,  as  is  natural  by  an  author  belonging  to  their 
order. 

18.  Ben  is  certainly  a  scribal  error,  and  must  be  omitted  with 
some  Hebrew  MSS.  The  forms  of  other  names  in  the  list  are 
corrupt  and  unreliable. 

19.  20.  Three  bands  of  musicians  were  appointed  with  cymbals, 
psalteries,  and  harps  respectively.  Heman,  Asaph,  and  Ethan 
were  the  actual  leaders  of  the  choirs,  and  the  two  other  bands 
acted  as  instrumentalists. 

20.  psalteries  set  to  Alamoth  :  the  expression  is  obscure. 
It  has  been  explained  as  indicating  soprano,  or  female  voices  ;  but 
may  probably  be  taken  here  as  indicating  a  high  pitch  of  tone. 

21.  harps  set  to  the  Sheminith  :  i.  e.  an  octave  lower  than 
the  psalteries. 

XV.  22-24.     The  list  of  Levites  in  the  procession  closes  with  the 
I  2 


ii6  I    CHRONICLES  15.  33-27.     Ch  Ch^ 

Levites,  was  over  the  song  :  he  instructed  about  the  song, 

23  because  he  was  skilful.     And  Berechiah  and  Elkanah 

24  were  doorkeepers  for  the  ark.  And  Shebaniah,  and 
Joshaphat,  and  Nethanel,  and  Amasai,  and  Zechariah, 
and  Benaiah,  and  Eliezer,  the  priests,  did  blow  with  the 
trumpets  before  the  ark  of  God :  and  Obed-edom  and 

25  Jehiah  were  doorkeepers  for  the  ark.  [Ch'^]  So  David, 
and  the  elders  of  Israel,  and  the  captains  over  thousands, 
went  to  bring  up  the  ark  of  the  covenant  of  the  Lord  out 

36  of  the  house  of  Obed-edom  with  joy  :  and  it  came  to  pass, 
when  God  helped  the  Levites  that  bare  the  ark  of  the 
covenant  of  the  Lord,  that  they  sacrificed  seven  bullocks 

27  and  seven  rams.  And  David  was  clothed  with  a  robe  of 
fine  linen,  and  all  the  Levites  that  bare  the  ark,  and  the 
singers,  and  Chenaniah  the  master  of  the  song  with  the 


names  of  the  leader  of  the  convoy,  seven  trumpeters,  and  four 
custodians  of  the  Ark. 

22.  Cliexianiah  is  said  to  have  been  '  over  the  song,'  but  the 
verse  is  obscure  and  it  is  preferable  to  read  'over  the  transport,' 
in  spite  of  the  LXX.  The  Hebrew  word  is  ^"^^^  which  almost 
invariabl3''  means  a  '  burden  '  and  is  the  usual  word  for  the  bearing 
of  the  Ark. 

XV.  25— xvi.  3.  Ritual  and  Festivities.  The  chronicler,  having 
given  at  considerable  length  the  disposition  of  the  Levites,  now 
returns  to  the  narrative  of  2  Sam.  vi.  12''- 19,  which  he  follows 
with  considerable  variations. 

26.  In  2  Sam.  vi.  13  we  find  the  expression  '  they  that  bare  the 
Ark,'  but  the  chronicler  expressly  states  that  these  were  Levites. 
He  also  describes  the  royal  sacrifice  as  consisting  of  the  '  seven 
bullocks  and  seven  rams '  demanded  by  the  later  ecclesiastical 
legislation,  whereas  the  author  of  Samuel  puts  it  at  *  an  ox  and 
a  falling' — although  it  is  quite  possible  to  explain  the  discrepancy 
by  referring  the  sacrifices  to  different  points  on  the  route. 

27.  We  have  here  a  description  of  the  priestly  garb  worn  alike 
by  king  and  Levites.  The  author  of  Samuel  also  speaks  of 
David's  participation  in  the  whirling  dance,  resembling  that  of  the 
Dervishes,  which  preceded  the  Ark.  The  chronicler's  omission 
of  the  dancing  of  David  is  not  due  to  any  sense  of  its  incongruity, 
for  he  alludes  to  it  in  verse  29,  nor  can  it  be  explained  as  a  con- 


I   CHRONICLES  15.  28— 16.  4.     Ch^  R2  h  Ch  117 

singers :  [R^]  and  David   had  upon  him  an  ephod  of 
linen.     [H]  Thus  all  Israel  brought  up  the  ark  of  the  28 
covenant  of  the  Lord  with  shouting,  and  with  sound 
of  the  cornet,  and  with   trumpets,  and  with  cymbals, 
sounding  aloud  with  psalteries  and  harps.      And  it  came  29 
to  pass,  as  the  ark  of  the  covenant  of  the  Lord  came  to 
the  city  of  David,  that  Michal  the  daughter  of  Saul  looked 
out  at  the  window,  and  saw  king  David  dancing  and 
playing ;  and  she  despised  him  in  her  heart.     And  they 
brought  in  the  ark  of  God,  and  set  it  in  the  midst  of  the  16 
tent  that  David  had  pitched  for  it :  and  they  offered  burnt 
offerings  and  peace  offerings  before  God.     And  when 
David  had  made  an  end  of  offering  the  burnt  offering  2 
and  the  peace  offerings,  he  blessed  the  people  in  the 
name  of  the  Lord.    And  he  dealt  to  every  one  of  Israel,  3 
both  man  and  woman,  to  every  one  a  loaf  of  bread,  and 
a  portion  offiesh^  and  a  cake  of  raisins. 

[Ch]  And  he  appointed   certain   of  the   Levites   to  4 

fusion  of  the  somewhat  similar  words  for  dancing  and  being 
clothed  {m^karker  and  rn^kurbal)  ;  it  arose  simply  from  his  in- 
tention of  describing  the  dress  of  the  king  and  priests. 

ephod  of  linen:    evidently  a  kind  of  tunic  or  short  skirt 
worn  round  the  waist  ;  the  phrase  seems  to  be  a  late  gloss. 

29.  Michal  (cf.  i  Sam.  xviii.  27).  It  was  the  scantiness  of  the 
royal  attire  that  gave  offence  to  Michal. 

xvi.  1-3.  The  success  of  the  transport  of  the  Ark  was  celebrated 
by  sacrifices  and  national  rejoicing.  David  performed  an  act 
which  was  the  exclusive  prerogative  of  the  priesthood  when  he 
*  invoked  the  name  of  Jehovah '  over  the  people  ;  but  throughout 
the  ceremony  the  priestly  character  of  the  kingship  is  acknow- 
ledged, in  that  David  also  wore  priestly  garments  and  offered 
sacrifice. 

3.  The  royal  bounty  was  extended  to  all  the  people  present. 
It  consisted  of  bread  and  raisins  and  certain  other  victuals, 
although  it  is  impossible  to  say  whether  the  unknown  word  used 
of  the  latter  refers  to  flesh  or  to  wine. 

xvi.  4-43.  The  Religious  Festival  and  the  Service  before  the  Ark. 
The  substance  of  this  section  is  not  fpund  in  2  Samuel,  where 


ii8  I   CHRONICLES  16.  5-7.     Ch 

minister  before  the  ark  of  the  Lord,  and  to  celebrate 
and  to  thank  and  praise  the  Lord,  the  God  of  Israel : 

5  Asaph  the  chief,  and  second  to  him  Zechariah,  Jeiel,  and 
Shemiramoth,  and  Jehiel,  and  Mattithiah,  and  Eliab,  and 
Benaiah,  and  Obed-edom,  and  Jeiel,  with  psalteries  and 
with  harps;   and  Asaph  with  cymbals,  sounding  aloud; 

6  and  Benaiah  and  Jahaziel  the  priests  with  trumpets  con- 
tinually, before  the  ark  of  the  covenant  of  God. 

7  Then  on  that  day  did  David  first  ordain  to  give  thanks 
unto  the  Lord,  by  the  hand  of  Asaph  and  his  brethren. 


verse  43  of  this  chapter  follows  immediately  upon  verse  3  (cf. 
2  Sam.  vi.  19^,  20*).  David's  first  care  was  to  order  the  musical 
service  for  the  new  abode  of  the  sacred  Ark. 

4.  to  celebrate  (Heb.  l^hazkir)  is  the  musical  term  for  the 
chanting  of  the  set  Psalms  at  the  hour  of  worship ;  the  word  is 
used  in  the  superscription  of  Psalms  xxxviii  and  Ixx ;  to  thank 
(Heb.  l^hodotli)  refers  to  Psalms  which  tell  of  the  goodness  of 
God  ;  and  to  praise  (Heb.  I'^hallcl)  indicates  Psalms  of  joy. 

5,  6.  The  Levites  appointed  to  lead  the  worship  before  the 
Ark  were  taken  from  among  those  named  in  the  procession  (xv. 
17-21),  omitting  Heman  and  Ethan  from  among  the  chief  singers, 
and  also  omitting  five  instrumentalists  and  five  trumpeters. 

7.  David  appointed  Asaph  to  conduct  the  service  of  song. 
There  follows  at  once  a  specimen  of  the  songs  used  by  the 
Asaphite  guild  of  singers.  The  first  fifteen  verses  of  this  song 
are  identical  with  Psalm  cv.  1-15  ;  the  next  eleven  are  found 
in  Psalm  xcvi ;  and  the  doxology  occurs  in  Psalm  cvi.  i,  47-8. 
The  questions  of  authorship,  sources,  and  date  are  thus  raised  at 
the  outset.  All  modern  critics  assign  these  Psalms  to  the  post- 
exilic  period  upon  indisputable  internal  evidence ;  and,  con- 
sequently, we  must  conclude  either  that  the  present  song  is 
a  skilful  composition  from  portions  of  three  popular  songs  of  the 
second  Temple,  or  that  the  authors  of  three  of  these  later  Psalms 
have  each  appropriated  a  portion  of  the  original  Davidic  song. 
But  the  whole  tendency  of  the  chronicler  is  to  compile  his 
matter  from  various  sources  and  to  carry  back  the  familiar  things 
of  his  own  day  to  the  different  conditions  of  the  past.  Hence  we 
naturally  reach  the  conclusion  that  he  either  composed  the  song 
from  songs  in  use  in  his  day,  or  that  he  found  it  in  its  present 
composite  form  as  a  late  Psalm — the  former  being  the  more 
probable.      Doubtless  the  chronicler  was  guided  by  contemporary 


I   CHRONICLES  16.  8-19.     H  119 

[H]  O  give  thanks  unto  the  Lord,  call  upon  his  S 

name: 
Make  known  his  doings  among  the  peoples. 
Sing  unto  him,  sing  praises  unto  him ;  9 

Talk  ye  of  all  his  marvellous  works. 
Glory  ye  in  his  holy  name :  10 

Let  the  heart  of  them  rejoice  that  seek  the  Lord. 
Seek  ye  the  Lord  and  his  strength ;  1 1 

Seek  his  face  evermore. 

Remember  his  marvellous  works  that  he  hath  done ;  1 2 
His  wonders,  and  the  judgements  of  his  mouth  ; 
O  ye  seed  of  Israel  his  servant,  13 

Ye  children  of  Jacob,  his  chosen  ones. 
He  is  the  Lord  our  God :  14 

His  judgements  are  in  all  the  earth. 
Remember  his  covenant  for  ever,  15 

The  word   which   he   commanded   to  a  thousand 

generations ; 
The  covenant  which  he  made  with  Abraham,  16 

And  his  oath  unto  Isaac ; 

And  confirmed  the  same  unto  Jacob  for  a  statute,      17 
To  Israel  for  an  everlasting  covenant : 
Saying,  Unto  thee  will  I  give  the  land  of  Canaan,      1 8 
The  lot  of  your  inheritance  : 

When  ye  were  but  a  few  men  in  number ;  19 

Yea,  very  few,  and  sojourners  in  it ; 

opinion  in  selecting  such  a  specimen  of  the  early  Psalmody 
before  the  Ark. 

xvi.  8-22.  Cf.  Psalm  cv.  1-15.  The  singer  calls  for  praise  to 
Jehovah  for  His  wondrous  deeds,  celebrates  the  glory  of  His 
covenant  with  Israel,  and  tells  of  the  sufficiency  of  His  grace 
vouchsafed  to  the  patriarchs. 

13.  Israel  Ms  servant:  Ps.  cv.  6,  'Abraham  his  servant.' 
All  the  references  of  this  section  are  to  the  early  days  of  Hebrew 
history  and  are  uttered  in  a  tone  of  buoyant  praise. 


120  I   CHRONICLES  16.  20-32.     H 

20  And  they  went  about  from  nation  to  nation, 
And  from  one  kingdom  to  another  people. 

21  He  suffered  no  man  to  do  them  wrong; 
Yea,  he  reproved  kings  for  their  sakes ; 

22  Sayings  Touch  not  mine  anointed  ones, 
And  do  my  prophets  no  harm. 

23  Sing  unto  the  Lord,  all  the  earth ; 
Shew  forth  his  salvation  from  day  to  day. 

24  Declare  his  glory  among  the  nations, 

His  marvellous  works  among  all  the  peoples. 

25  For  great  is  the  Lord,  and  highly  to  be  praised  : 
He  also  is  to  be  feared  above  all  gods. 

26  For  all  the  gods  of  the  peoples  are  idols  : 
But  the  Lord  made  the  heavens. 

2  J-  Honour  and  majesty  are  before  him  : 

Strength  and  gladness  are  in  his  place. 

28  Give  unto  the  Lord,  ye  kindreds  of  the  peoples, 
Give  unto  the  Lord  glory  and  strength. 

29  Give  unto  the  Lord  the  glory  due  unto  his  name  : 
Bring  an  offering,  and  come  before  him  : 
Worship  the  Lord  in  the  beauty  of  holiness. 

30  Tremble  before  him,  all  the  earth : 

The  world  also  is  stablished  that  it  cannot  be  moved. 

31  Let  the  heavens  be  glad,  and  let  the  earth  rejoice ; 
And  let  them  say  among  the  nations.  The  Lord 

reigneth. 

32  Let  the  sea  roar,  and  the  fulness  thereof; 

xvi.  23-33.  Cf.  Psalm  xcvi,  omitting  clauses  from  verses  i,  2, 
10,  and  13.  The  singer  calls  for  universal  praise  and  worship, 
and  speaks  of  the  rejoicing  of  inanimate  nature  at  Jehovah's 
presence. 

27.  gladness  ...  in  his  place :  the  chronicler's  variant  for 
'beauty  in  his  sanctuary.' 

31.  The  clauses  of  Ps,  xcvi.  lo  are  transposed. 


I    CHRONICLES  16.  33-?,8.     H  Ch  121 

Let  the  field  exult,  and  all  that  is  therein ; 

Then  shall  the  trees  of  the  wood  sing  for  joy  before  33 
the  Lord, 

For  he  cometh  to  judge  the  earth. 

O  give  thanks  unto  the  Lord  ;  for  he  is  good  :  34 

For  his  mercy  endureth  for  ever. 

And  say  ye,  Save  us,  O  God  of  our  salvation,  35 

And  gather  us  together  and  deliver  us  from  the 
nations, 

To  give  thanks  unto  thy  holy  name, 

And  to  triumph  in  thy  praise. 

Blessed  be  the  Lord,  the  God  of  Israel,  36 

From  everlasting  even  to  everlasting. 
And  all  the  people  said,  Amen,  and  praised  the  Lord. 

[Ch]  So  he  left  there,  before  the  ark  of  the  covenant  37 
of  the  Lord,  Asaph  and  his  brethren,  to  minister  before 
the  ark  continually,  as  every  day's  work  required :    and  38 

33.  This  recognition  of  the  universality  of  God's  reign  and  of 
the  sole  reality  of  Jehovah  as  the  living  God  is  found  only  in  the 
more  developed,  later  religious  thought  of  Israel. 

xvi.  34-6.  Cf.  Ps.  cvi.  I,  47,  48,  The  song  concludes  with 
a  burst  of  praise  in  the  doxology. 

35.  The  opening  clause  paraphrases  Ps.  cvi.  47. 

36.  The  exhortation  which  closes  Ps.  cvi.  48  is  here  turned 
into  a  record  of  the  popular  response  at  the  close  of  the  service 
of  song. 

xvi.  37-43.  The  Levites  and  Public  Worship.  During  the 
sojourn  of  the  Ark  in  land  under  Philistine  sway  the  centre 
of  Hebrew  religious  interest  still  continued  to  be  the  ancient 
Tabernacle  at  Gibeon.  David  had  now  formed  a  new  centre 
in  Zion  by  bringing  back  the  Ark,  and  the  first  steps  were 
possible  towards  the  real  centralization  of  worship.  The  organiza- 
tion of  worship  at  the  new  shrine  consequently  engaged  his 
early  attention  and  he  sought  to  allocate  the  Levites  to  the  service 
of  Jehovah  in  the  capital. 

3*7.  Asaph,  with  his  guild,  was  left  in  charge  of  the  service 
before  the  Ark  and  of  the  daily  routine  of  worship. 


122  I   CHRONICLES  16.  39-42.     Ch 

Obed-edom  with  their   brethren,  threescore  and  eight; 
Obed-edom  also  the  son  of  Jeduthun  and  Hosah  to  be 

39  doorkeepers :  and  Zadok  the  priest,  and  his  brethren 
the  priests,  before  the  tabernacle  of  the  Lord  in  the  high 

40  place  that  was  at  Gibeon,  to  offer  burnt  offerings  unto 
the  Lord  upon  the  altar  of  burnt  offering  continually 
morning  and  evening,  even  according  to  all  that  is  written 
in  the  law  of  the  Lord,  which  he  commanded  unto  Israel ; 

41  and  with  them  Heman  and  Jeduthun,  and  the  rest  that 
were  chosen,  who  were  expressed  by  name,  to  give  thanks 

42  to  the  Lord,  because  his  mercy  endureth  for  ever;  and 
with  them  Heman  and  Jeduthun  with  trumpets  and 
cymbals  for  those  that  should  sound  aloud,  and  ivith 
instruments   for  the  songs  of  God  :    and   the  sons   of 

38.  Otoed-edom  with  their  brethren :  either  a  name  has 
dropped  out  or  we  should  read  '  his  brethren,'  with  the  LXX. 
The  name  of  Obed-edom  occurs  so  frequently  (cf.  xv.  21,  24,  &c.) 
that  more  than  one  individual  may  be  designated  ;  the  corruption 
of  the  text  leaves  the  identity  an  open  question. 

39.  Zadok  and  his  guild  were  left  in  charge  of  the  ancient 
Tabernacle  at  the  high-place  in  Gibeon.  Zadok  was  the  legitimate 
representative  of  Eleazar's  line  and  therefore  was  entrusted  with 
the  care  of  the  older  shrine.  Probably  the  Tabernacle  had  been 
moved  to  Gibeon  after  the  slaughter  of  the  priests  at  Nob  by  Saul, 
and  it  is  to  be  inferred  that  Nob  had  been  chosen  as  its  resting- 
place  after  the  destruction  of  Shiloh  by  the  Philistines  in  the 
earlier  days  of  Saul. 

hig-h  place  (Heb.  bdmdh)  :  the  regular  designation  for  the 
eminence  outside  a  town  which  was  consecrated  to  the  worship 
of  the  deities  by  the  early  Canaanite  inhabitants  of  the  land. 
The  Israelites  appropriated  these  early  shrines  for  the  worship  of 
Jehovah.  Such  worship  was  regarded  as  legitimate  prior  to  the 
rise  of  the  later  Deuteronomic  school ;  for  instance,  Samuel  leads  the 
worship  at  the  high-place  at  Bethlehem  ;  and  no  word  of  con- 
demnation is  uttered  against  it  by  either  Elijah  or  Elisha.  Hence 
there  is  nothing  to  excite  wonder  in  the  presence  of  the  Taber- 
nacle and  the  brazen  altar  at  the  bdmdh  of  Gibeon. 

41.  With  Zadok  at  Gibeon  were  the  musicians  Heman  and 
Jeduthun  (i.  e.  Ethan). 

42.  Evidently  the  first  clause  of  the  verse  has  been  wrongly 


I   CHRONICLES    16.  43— 17.  2     Ch  H       123 

Jeduthun  to  be  at  the  gate.     And  all  the  people  departed  43 
every  man  to  his  house :   and  David  returned  to  bless 
his  house. 

[H]  And  it  came  to  pass,  when  David  dwelt  in  his  17 
house,  that  David  said  to  Nathan   the  prophet,  Lo,  I 
dwell  in  an  house  of  cedar,  but  the  ark  of  the  covenant 
of  the  Lord  dwelleth  under  curtains.     And  Nathan  said  2 

repeated  by  an  oversight   from  verse  41.     The  LXX  omits  the 
names  and  reads  '  with  them  were  trumpets  and  cymbals,  &c.' 

43.  Cf.  2  Sam.  vi.  ig'^-ao*.  The  chronicler  omits  the  scene  of 
domestic  altercation  with  Michal,  as  derogatory  to  the  splendour 
of  the  early  monarchy. 

(4)  xvii.  The  Temple  and  the  Dynasty  (cf.  2  Sam.  vii). 
Upon  the  completion  of  the  royal  palace  the  king  realized  how 
incongruous  it  was  that  the  Ark  of  God  should  be  housed  in 
a  tent  ;  consequently  he  proceeded  at  once  to  lay  before  the 
prophet  Nathan  plans  for  the  erection  of  a  Temple.  The  fact 
that  this  incident  is  narrated  immediately  after  that  of  the  convoy 
of  the  Ark  to  Jerusalem  is  merely  due  to  the  natural  connexion  of 
the  themes  ;  but  in  all  probability  several  years  elapsed  between 
them.  The  entire  chapter  occurs  in  2  Sam.  vii.  where  its  whole 
tone  and  form  are  such  as  to  suggest  that  it  must  have  been  recast 
in  its  present  form  by  a  later  Deuteronomic  redactor,  who  took 
the  opportunity  of  clearly  expressing  in  it  the  developed  Messianic 
hope  of  the  later  years  of  the  monarchy ;  this  has  led  critics  to 
date  its  composition  about  600  b.c,  in  the  time  of  Josiah.  The 
chronicler  embodies  it  in  his  narrative  with  the  usual  redactional 
variations. 

xvii.  1-6.  David's  plan  to  build  a  Temple. 

1.  Nathan  tlie  prophet  appears  to  have  been  the  court- 
prophet  of  the  reigns  of  David  and  Solomon.  He  evidently  held 
an  important  position  in  the  royal  household  ;  he  was  admitted  to 
the  king's  council  regarding  the  Temple,  and  was  respectfully 
listened  to  in  his  rebuke  which  followed  the  murder  of  Uriah ;  he 
may  also  have  occupied  the  post  of  chronicler,  for  he  wrote 
a  history  of  the  times  of  David  and  Solomon  (cf.  i  Chron.  xxix.  29 
and  2  Chron.  ix.  29). 

the  ark  of  the  covenant  of  the  IiORD :  a  phrase  specially 
common  in  the  Deuteronomic  school  of  writers. 

under  curtains :  cf.  xvi,  i.  David's  purpose  to  build 
a  Temple  is  merely  implied  in  the  comparison  between  his  own 
palace  and  the  tent ;  but  the  implication  is  unmistakable. 


124  I    CHRONICLES  17.  3-8.     H 

unto  David,  Do  all  that  is  in  thine  heart ;  for  God  is  with 

3  thee.     And  it  came  to  pass   the  same  night,  that  the 

4  word  of  God  came  to  Nathan,  saying,  Go  and  tell  David 
my  servant.  Thus  saith  the  Lord,  Thou  shalt  not  build 

5  me  an  house  to  dwell  in  :  for  I  have  not  dwelt  in  an 
house  since  the  day  that  I  brought  up  Israel,  unto  this 
day ;  but  have  gone  from  tent  to  tent,  and  from  one 

6  tabernacle  to  another.  In  all  places  wherein  I  have 
walked  with  all  Israel,  spake  I  a  word  with  any  of  the 
judges  of  Israel,  whom  I  commanded  to  feed  my  people, 
saying,  Why  have  ye  not  built  me  an  house  of  cedar? 

7  Now  therefore  thus  shalt  thou  say  unto  my  servant 
David,  Thus  saith  the  Lord  of  hosts,  I  took  thee  from 
the  sheepcote,  from  following  the  sheep,  that  thoushouldest 

8  be  prince  over  my  people  Israel  :  and  I  have  been  with 


xvii.  2-6,  Nathan's  approval  of  the  king's  suggestions  was  due 
to  a  natural  sympathy  with  his  religious  zeal.  However,  during 
the  night's  communion  with  God  the  matter  appeared  in  a  different 
light.  It  was  against  all  precedent  for  the  Ark  to  be  housed 
otherwise  than  in  the  simplicity  of  the  earlier  days. 

2.  God  is  with  thee  :  the  chronicler  frequently  substitutes  the 
word  '  God '  (Heb.  'Elohnn)  for  '■  the  Lord  '  (i.  e.  Jehovah)  of 
Samuel  (cf.  xiii.  8,  12,  14,  xiv.  lo,  ii,  14,  15,  xvi.  i,  2). 

4.  Thou  Shalt  not  build  me  an  house  :  from  the  narratives  of 
Samuel  and  Kings  we  gather  that  the  lack  of  precedent  was  not 
the  sole  cause  of  the  veto  placed  upon  David's  plan.  David 
himself  was  not  the  man  for  such  an  undertaking,  seeing  that  he 
was  a  man  of  war  and  that  his  hands  were  not  clean. 

5.  from  tent  to  tent:  the  chronicler's  apparent  expansion  of 
the  language  of  the  earlier  history  is  due  to  an  evident  corruption 
of  the  text.  The  LXX  and  Syriac  preserve  traces  of  the  briefer 
reading,  but  the  point  emphasized  is  the  primitive  simplicity  of 
the  early  religious  institutions  as  compared  with  the  elaborate 
ritual  of  later  Judaism. 

xvii.  7-15.  The  Dynasty  conjirmed.  The  prophet  returns  with 
a  message  from  God  to  David.  He  reminds  the  king  of  former 
mercies  ;  he  declares  that  God's  favour  will  be  continued  to 
Israel ;  and  he  foretells  the  durance  of  the  dynasty.     Throughout 


I   CHRONICLES  17.  9-11     M  125 

thee  whithersoever  thou  vventest,  and  have  cut  off  all 
thine  enemies  from  before  thee;  and  I  will  make  thee 
a  name,  like  unto  the  name  of  the  great  ones  that  are  in 
the  earth.     And  I  will  appoint  a  place  for  my  people  9 
Israel,  and  will  plant  them,  that  they  may  dwell  in  their 
own  place,  and  be  moved  no  more ;   neither  shall  the 
children  of  wickedness  waste  them  any  more,  as  at  the 
first,  and  as  from  the  day  that  I  commanded  judges  to  10 
be  over  my  people  Israel ;  and  I  will  subdue  all  thine 
enemies.     Moreover  I  tell  thee  that  the  Lord  will  build 
thee  an  house.     And  it  shall  come  to  pass,  when  thy  11 
days  be  fulfilled  that  thou  must  go  to  be  with  thy  fathers, 
that  I  will  set  up  thy  seed  after  thee,  which  shall  be  of 


there  are  traces  of  rhythmic  structure  in  Nathan's  utterance,  as  is 
so  often  the  case  with  the  words  of  the  prophets,  but  it  is  no 
longer  possible  to  restore  their  poetical  form  without  doing  more 
violence  to  the  text  than  is  permissible.  The  parallelism,  which 
forms  the  basis  of  Hebrew  poetry,  can  be  traced  throughout, 
except  in  verse  ii. 

9.  be  moved  no  more:  this  phrase  is  generally  held  to  be 
a  proof  that  the  words  were  pre-exilic ;  but  it  is  by  no  means 
certain  that  the  later  Jews  ever  regarded  the  Exile  as  a  destruction 
of  the  dynasty  ;  and,  in  any  case,  the  chronicler  saw  no  reason 
to  emend  the  words  of  Nathan  to  bring  them  into  line  with  history. 

10.  the  LORD  will  build  thee  an  house  :  this  is  the  promise 
of  God  to  David,  and  it  stands  in  clear  contrast  to  David's  desire 
to  build  a  house  for  God. 

11.  thy  seed:  we  have  here  an  expansion  and  explanation  of 
the  simple  promise  of  verse  lo.  But  it  must  be  observed  that  the 
promise  is  not  connected  with  any  individual  ;  it  is  quite  general 
and  concerns  the  Davidic  dynasty  (cf.  '  his  house,'  i.  e.  David's 
house).  As,  therefore,  the  structure  of  the  Hebrew  sentences 
compels  us  to  refer  verse  ii  and  the  concluding  verses  of  the 
passage  to  David's  '  seed '  generally  and  not  to  a  specific  son  of 
David,  it  is  held  by  many  modern  scholars  that  verse  12  is  a  later 
insertion  to  harmonize  with  the  promise  to  Solomon  regarding 
the  Temple.  The  chronicler  undoubtedly  takes  the  word  *  seed ' 
in  the  later  Messianic  sense  and  omits  various  phrases  (e.  g.  '  if 
he  commit  iniquity,'  &c.)  from  the  narrative  of  2  Samuel  to 
secure  a  fuller  harmony  with  later  ideas  regarding  the  Messiah. 


126        I   CHRONICLES  17.  12-17.     H  Ch^  H 

12  thy  sons;  and  I  will  establish  his  kingdom.  He  shall 
build  me  an  house,  and  I  will  establish  his  throne  for 

13  ever.  I  will  be  his  father,  and  he  shall  be  my  son :  and 
I  will  not  take  my  mercy  away  from  him,  [Ch^]  as  I  took 

14  it  from  him  that  was  before  thee :  but  I  will  settle  him 
in  mine  house  and  in  my  kingdom  for  ever :    and   his 

15  throne  shall  be  established  for  ever.  [H]  According  to 
all  these  words,  and  according  to  all  this  vision,  so  did 
Nathan  speak  unto  David. 

16  Then  David  the  king  went  in,  and  sat  before  the  Lord  ; 
and  he  said.  Who  am  I,  O  Lord  God,  and  what  is  my 

17  house,  that  thou  hast  brought  me  thus  far?  And  this 
was  a  small  thing  in  thine  eyes,  O  God  ;  but  thou  hast 
spoken  of  thy  servant's  house  for  a  great  while  to  come, 
and  hast  regarded  me  according  to  the  estate  of  a  man 

The  full  Messianic  significance  of  the  passage  is  carefully  discussed 
by  Prof.  Briggs  in  Messianic  Prophecy^  p.  126  flf. 

14.  forever :  it  is  again  noticeable  that  the  chronicler  uses  the 
words  of  the  final  assurance  in  reference  to  '  the  seed '  of  David 
in  the  Messianic  sense,  whereas  2  Samuel  refers  them  directly  to 
David  himself.  The  whole  verse  has  been  remodelled  by  our 
author. 

xvii.  16-27.    David- s  Prayer  of  Thanksgiving. 

16.  David  .  .  .  sat  before  the  ZiOUD  :  the  effect  upon  David 
of  the  promise  of  God  through  Nathan  was  the  production  of 
humiliation  and  gratitude.  Entering  the  tent  of  the  Ark  he  voiced 
the  prayer  which  is  given  in  verses  16-27.  O"^  cannot  fail  to 
trace  in  all  the  religious  exercises  practised  by  David  at  this  time 
a  close  resemblance  to  the  practices  of  the  modern  Dervishes  : 
when  the  Ark  was  carried  up  to  the  citadel  he  danced  the  whirling 
dance  of  the  Dervish  before  it ;  he  now  assumes  the  attitude  of 
sitting  for  prayer,  i.e.  he  would  sink  down  upon  his  heels  while 
keeping  head  and  body  erect.  This  attitude  for  prayer  is  mentioned 
nowhere  else  in  the  O.  T. 

17.  The  latter  half  of  the  verse  is  so  corrupt  that  it  is  scarcely 
possible  to  ofi"er  any  satisfactory  alternative  to  the  present  reading. 
Evidently  the  phrase  in  2  Sam.  vii,  19  was  already  utterly  obscure 
in  the  days  of  the  chronicler,  but  he  replaced  it  by  one  equally 
obscure.     Perhaps  we  get  as  near  as  possible    to  the  original 


I   CHRONICLES  17.  18-25.     H  127 

of  high  degree,  O  Lord  God.     What  can  David  say  yet  iS 
more  unto  thee  concerning  the  honour  which  is  done  to 
thy  servant  ?  for  thou  knowest  thy  servant.     O  Lord,  19 
for  thy  servant's  sake,  and  according  to  thine  own  heart, 
hast  thou  wrought  all  this  greatness,  to  make  known  all 
^kese  great  things.     O  Lord,  there  is  none  like  thee,  20 
neither  is  there  any  God  beside  thee,  according  to  all 
that  we  have  heard  with  our  ears.     And  what  one  nation  21 
in  the  earth  is  like  thy  people  Israel,  whom  God  went  to 
redeem  unto  himself  for  a  people,  to  make  thee  a  name 
by  great  and  terrible  things,  in  driving  out  nations  from 
before  thy  people,  which  thou  redeemedst  out  of  Egypt  ? 
For  thy  people  Israel  didst  thou  make  thine  own  people  22 
for  ever ;  and  thou.  Lord,  becamest  their  God.     And  23 
now,  O  Lord,  let  the  word  that  thou  hast  spoken  con- 
cerning   thy   servant,   and    concerning    his    house,   be 
established  for  ever,  and  do  as  thou  hast  spoken.     And  24 
let  thy  name  be  established   and   magnified  for  ever, 
saying,  The  Lord  of  hosts  is  the  God  of  Israel,  even  a 
God  to  Israel :  and  the  house  of  David  thy  servant  is 
established  before  thee.     For  thou,  O   my  God,  hast  25 


meaning  if  we  read,  with  Ewald,  '  and  hast  made  me  look  upon 
the  ranks  of  men  onward '  (i.  e.  upon  his  descendants). 
18.  The  better  reading  is  preserved  in  2  Samuel. 

21.  Again  the  text  is  very  confused;  but  the  variations  are 
evidently  due  to  the  chronicler's  desire  to  present  Jehovah's 
redeeming  mercies  to  Israel  without  the  necessity  of  alluding  to 
the  deities  of  heathen  races  ;  cf,  note  on  2  Sam,  vii.  23  {Century 
Bible  :  Kennedy". 

22,  The  covenant  relationship  between  Jehovah  and  His  people 
is  regarded  as  a  unique  distinction  between  Israel  and  the  heathen. 

24.  let  thy  name  be  established  :  '  the  Name '  (i.  e.  Jehovah) 
is  frequently  used  for  God  Himself,  in  that  it  designates  God  in 
His  personal  existence  in  relation  to  Israel. 

even  a  God  to  Israel:  the  redundance  is  a  modification  of 
the  original. 


128  I    CHRONICLES  17.26^18.2.     H 

revealed  to  thy  servant  that  thou  wilt  build  him  an  house: 
therefore  hath  thy  servant   found   in  his  heart  to  pray 

26  before  thee.      And  now,  O  Lord,  thou  art  God,  and 

27  hast  promised  this  good  thing  unto  thy  servant :  and  now 
it  hath  pleased  thee  to  bless  the  house  of  thy  servant, 
that  it  may  continue  for  ever  before  thee  :  for  thou, 
O  Lord,  hast  blessed,  and  it  is  blessed  for  ever. 

18      [H]  And  after  this  it  came  to  pass,  that  David  smote 

the  Philistines,  and  subdued  them,  and  took  Oath  and 

2  her  towns  out  of  the  hand  of  the  Philistines.     And  he 


(5)  xviii-xx.    David's  Campaigns  and  Officials. 

The  material  for  these  chapters  is  derived  from  3  Sam.  viii,  x, 
xi.  I,  xii.  26-31,  xxi.  18-22,  with  little  variation.  The  original 
is  a  condensed  account  of  the  wars  of  David,  such  as  frequently 
stands  at  the  close  of  the  history  of  a  reign.  In  making  use  of  it 
the  chronicler  narrates  David's  victories  over  Philistia,  Moab, 
Zobah,  Damascus,  and  Edom  (ch.  xviii),  and  gives  a  list  of  the 
chief  officers  of  state.  Then  follows  the  account  (ch.  xix)  of  the 
arduous  campaign  against  the  Ammonites  and  Syrians,  which 
is  apparently  taken  from  a  different  source  than  2  Sam.  viii. 
And,  lastly,  we  have  (ch.  xx)  the  narrative  of  the  capture  of 
Rabbah,  derived  from  2  Sam.  xxi,  with  a  brief  appendix  of  the 
names  of  certain  heroes.  From  the  narrative  of  2  Samuel  the 
chronicler  omits  the  chequered  picture  of  David's  family  troubles, 
of  his  crime  regarding  Uriah,  and  of  the  fate  of  Saul's  sons.  The 
few  divergencies  from  the  original  are  due  mainly  to  obscurities 
in  the  text  or  to  condensation. 

xviii.    Wars  and  Ministers  of  State  (cf.  2  Sam.  viii), 

(1)  xviii.  I.    War  with  the  Philistines. 

1.  Gath  and  her  towns:  the  chronicler's  rendering  of  'the 
bridle  of  the  mother  city '  of  2  Sam.  viii.  i — a  very  plausible  emen- 
dation of  a  text  which  must  already  have  been  obscure.  It  is  far 
from  certain  whether  the  original  will  bear  the  rendering  of  '  the 
mother  city  '  (R.V.).  The  Hebrew  no^i  means  '  a  cubit,'  and  can 
scarcely  be  taken  as  an  equivalent  for  □><  'mother,'  i.  e.  metropolis. 
But  the  unmistakable  meaning  is  that  David  threw  off  the 
Philistine  yoke  from  Israel  and  established  his  supremacy  over 
the  lands  ruled  by  the  lords  of  Gath. 

Gath  is  represented  to-day  by  extensive  ruins  around  a  con- 
spicuous hill  called  the  Tell-es-Safich,  which  rises  from  the  plain  at 


I   CHRONICLES  18.  3-8.     H  129 

smote  Moab ;  and  the  Moabites  became  servants  to  Da- 
vid, and  brought  presents.     And  David  smote  Hadarezer  3 
king  of  Zobah  unto  Hamath,  as  he  went  to  stablish  his 
dominion  by  the  river  Euphrates.     And  David  took  from  4 
him  a  thousand  chariots,  and  seven  thousand  horsemen, 
and  twenty  thousand  footmen :  and  David  houghed  all 
the  chariot  horses,  but  reserved  of  them  for  an  hundred 
chariots.     And  when  the  Syrians  of  Damascus  came  to  5 
succour  Hadarezer  king  of  Zobah,  David  smote  of  the 
Syrians  two  and  twenty  thousand  men.     Then  David  put  6 
garnsofis  in  Syria  of  Damascus ;  and  the  Syrians  became 
servants  to  David,  and  brought  presents.     And  the  Lord 
gave  victory  to  David  whithersoever  he  went.     And  Da-  7 
vid  took  the  shields  of  gold  that  were  on  the  servants  of 
Hadarezer,  and  brought  them  to  Jerusalem.     And  from  8 


the  foot  of  the  hills  of  Judah.     It  was  one  of  the  five  royal  cities 
of  Philistia. 

(2)  2.  Waf  with  Moab. 

The  chronicler  entirely  omits  all  reference  to  the  cruelty  which 
David,  in  the  hour  of  victory,  displayed  to  the  land  which  had 
once  offered  asylum  to  his  parents.  The  reasons  for  David's 
changed  attitude  are  unknown  ;  but  he  reduced  the  land  to 
subjection  and  imposed  tribute  upon  it. 

(3)  3,  4.   War  with  Zobah. 

Zobah  was  a  petty  Aramaean  kingdom  in  the  neighbourhood 
of  Damascus.  In  xix.  6  we  read  of  provocation  which  led  to  this 
war ;  in  the  issue,  however,  David  extended  his  frontiers  to 
Hamath  and  the  Euphrates.  Textual  errors  here,  as  so  frequently 
in  the  O.  T.,  account  for  the  discrepancies  in  the  numbers  of  the 
captives. 

(4)  xviii.  5-10.     War  with  Damascus,  &c. 

5.  Damascus:  a  city  of  the  remotest  antiquity,  lying  in  a 
fertile  plain  east  of  Hermon.  The  city  rises  like  an  island  of 
white  from  the  midst  of  orchards  at  the  foot  of  a  range  of  lime- 
stone hills.  It  was  proverbial  for  its  great  prosperity.  David 
seems  to  have  established  his  suzerainty  over  it,  and  to  have 
exacted  tribute. 

K 


I30         I   CHRONICLES  18.  9-12.     H  Ch^  H 

Tibhath  and  from  Cun,  cities  of  Hadarezer,  David  took 

very  much  brass,  [Ch^]  wherewith  Solomon  made  the 

brasen  sea,  and  the  pillars,  and  the  vessels  of  brass. 

9  [H]  And  when  Tou  king  of  Hamath  heard  that  David 

10  had  smitten  all  the  host  of  Hadarezer  king  of  Zobah,  he 
sent  Hadoram  his  son  to  king  David,  to  salute  him,  and 
to  bless  him,  because  he  had  fought  against  Hadarezer 
and  smitten  him;  for  Hadarezer  had  wars  with  Tou; 
and  he  had  with  him  all  manner  of  vessels  of  gold  and 

11  silver  and  brass.  These  also  did  king  David  dedicate 
unto  the  Lord,  with  the  silver  and  the  gold  that  he 
carried  away  from  all  the  nations  ;  from  Edom,  and  from 
Moab,  and  from  the  children  of  Ammon,  and  from  the 

12  Philistines,  and  from  Amalek.  Moreover  Abishai  the  son 
of  Zeruiah  smote  of  the  Edomites  in  the  Valley  of  Salt 

8.  Tibhath  and  .  .  .  Cun :  2  Samuel  reads  Betah  and  Berothai. 
Cun  may  be  the  same  as  Cuna-Cunnae,  between  Laodicea  and 
Heliopolis  (Kittel). 

the  brasen  sea,  &c.  :  this  account  of  the  use  which  Solomon 
made  of  the  captured  brass  is  the  chronicler's  addition  to  the  text 
of  2  Samuel,  and  is  prompted  by  his  unique  interest  in  all  Temple 
matters.  From  our  text  the  LXX  has  also  introduced  these 
statements  into  the  parallel  passage  in  2  Samuel. 

9.  Hamath :  an  important  city  on  the  river  Orontes.  It  may 
have  been  the  capital  of  the  early  Hittite  kingdom. 

11.  These  also  did  king  David  dedicate:  in  accordance  with 
the  ancient  custom  of  dedicating  spoils  to  the  god  of  the  country, 
David  dedicates  these  gifts  to  Jehovah. 

(5)  xviii.  12,  13.    Wurs  with  Edom. 

12.  Abishai:  as  the  author  of  2  Samuel  refers  only  to  David 
in  this  connexion,  it  appears  that  the  original  text,  where  also 
*  Syrians'  is  wrongly  read  for  'Edom,'  was  already  doubtful; 
probably  'Abishai'  is  a  misinterpretation  of  the  words  'had 
returned '  of  2  Sam.  viii.  13  (Heb.  Sy^^,  b^shuho).  The  inscription 
of  Psalm  Ix  attributes  the  victory  to  Joab. 

the  Valley  of  Salt:  the  modern  Wady-el-Milh,  which 
branches  off  from  the  Wady-es-Seba'  at  Beer-sheba.  The  two 
wadies  form  a  kind  of  indefinite  first  frontier  between  Israel  and 


I   CHRONICLES  18.  13-17.     H  131 

eighteen  thousand.     And  he  put  garrisons  in   Edom  ;  13 
and  all  the  Edomites  became  servants  to  David.     And 
the  Lord  gave  victory  to  David  whithersoever  he  went. 

And  David  reigned  over  all  Israel;  and  he  executed  14 
judgement  and  justice  unto  all  his  people.     And  Joab  15 
the  son  of  Zeruiah  was  over  the  host ;  and  Jehoshaphat 
the  son  of  Ahilud  was  recorder.     And  Zadok  the  son  of  16 
Ahitub,  and  Abimelech  the  son  of  Abiathar,  were  priests ; 
and  Shavsha  was  scribe  ;  and  Benaiah  the  son  of  Jehoiada  17 
was  over  the  Cherethites  and  the  Pelethites ;  and  the 
sons  of  David  were  chief  about  the  king. 

the  steppes  beyond.      It  was  the  scene  of  more  than  one  conflict 
between  Israel  and  Edom  (cf.  2  Chron.  xxv.  11). 

(6)  xviii.  14-17.    David^s  administration. 

14.  he  executed  judg-ement  and  justice:  David  was 
personally  accessible  to  all  the  people,  and  acted  in  the  capacity 
of  chief  justice. 

15.  Joab  .  .  .  was  over  the  host:  i.  e.  commander-in-chief  of 
the  national  militia ;  all  able-bodied  men  seem  to  have  been  liable 
to  military  service. 

recorder:  he  probably  held  a  position  analogous  to  the 
grand  vizier  of  an  Eastern  court,  keeping  the  king  apprised  of  the 
affairs  of  state.  The  Hebrew  word  {mazkir)  denotes  '  one  who 
reminds.' 

16.  Zadok  . . .  and  Abimelech:  a  certain  amountof  confusion  has 
here  crept  into  the  narrative  ;  cf.  note  on  vi.  4-15.  Zadok,  here 
mentioned  for  the  first  time,  did  not  belong  to  the  house  of  Eli 
(i.  e.  of  Ithamar)  as  here  represented.  If  he  was  actually  the 
'  son  of  Ahitub '  (cf.  vi.  8),  then  this  is  a  different  Ahitub  from  the 
priest  of  that  name  of  Eli's  line,  for  Zadok  was  the  legitimate 
representative  of  the  house  of  Eleazar.  On  the  other  hand, 
Abiathar  was  the  son  of  Abimelech  (or  Ahimelech),  the  son  of 
Ahitub.  The  representatives  of  the  two  rival  lines  fulfilled  a 
dual  high-priesthood  under  David. 

Shavsha :  LXX  Sousa,  2  Sam.  Seraiah  ;  the  correct  form 
cannot  now  be  determined.  The  post  he  occupied  was  that  of 
secretary  to  the  king;  it  possibly  included  the  duties  of  royal 
historian  and  custodian  of  the  state  records. 

1*7.  Cherethites  and . . .  Pelethites:  the  royal  bodyguard  com- 
posed of  Carian  and  Philistine  mercenaries.     Cf.  note  on  xi.  25. 

the  sons  of  David  were  chief  about  the  kingf :    the  author 

K    2 


132  I   CHRONICLES  19.  1-5.     H 

19      And  it  came  to  pass  after  this,  that  Nahash  the  king  of 
the  children  of  Amnion  died,  and  his  son  reigned  in  his 

2  stead.  And  David  said,  I  will  shew  kindness  unto  Hanun 
the  son  of  Nahash,  because  his  father  shewed  kindness  to 
me.  So  David  sent  messengers  to  comfort  him  concern- 
ing his  father.  And  David's  servants  came  into  the  land 
of  the  children  of  Ammon  to  Hanun,  to  comfort  him. 

3  But  the  princes  of  the  children  of  Ammon  said  to  Hanun, 
Thinkest  thou  that  David  doth  honour  thy  father,  that  he 
hath  sent  comforters  unto  thee?  are  not  his  servants 
come  unto  thee  for  to  search^  and  to  overthrow,  and  to 

4  spy  out  the  land  ?  So  Hanun  took  David's  servants,  and 
shaved  them,  and  cut  off  their  garments  in  the  middle, 

5  even  to  their  buttocks,  and  sent  them  away.  Then  there 
went  certain,  and  told  David  how  the  men  were  served. 

of  Samuel  says  emphatically  that  they  w^ere  'priests';  but  the 
chronicler,  writing  at  a  time  when  the  priesthood  was  the  ex- 
clusive prerogative  of  the  house  of  Levi,  changed  what  he  must 
have  regarded  as  an  unjustifiable  assertion,  in  accordance  with  his 
custom  throughout  his  work  of  compilation.  Even  the  LXX  has 
changed  the  'priests'  of  3  Samuel  into  'chiefs  of  the  court,' 
av\ap-)(ai. 

(7)  xix — XX.  3.  Wars  with  Ammon  and  Syria  (cf.  2  Sam.  x,  xi. 
i,xii.  26-31). 

This  campaign  was  the  outcome  of  an  insult  offered  by  the 
suspicious  and  boastful  king  of  Ammon  to  the  ambassadors  whom 
David  had  sent  to  congratulate  him  upon  his  accession  to  the  throne. 
The  chronicler  omits  all  reference  to  the  guilty  relations  of  David 
and  Bath-sheba,  which  were  so  closely  connected  with  these  events. 
The  narrative  concludes  with  an  account  of  the  siege  and  fall  of 
the  Ammonite  metropolis. 

1.  Nahash  had  warred  against  Israel  in  the  days  of  Saul 
(i  Sam.  xi.  i  ff.),  and  had  naturally  been  in  sympathy  with  his 
outlawed  son-in-law. 

3.  to  spy  out  the  land:  the  Ammonite  chieftains,  probably 
rendered  suspicious  by  David's  conquest  of  Edom  and  Moab, 
suggest  that  the  ambassadors  had  come  to  Rabbah  as  spies. 

4.  Hanun  treats  the  inviolable  persons  of  David's  embassy  with 
every  mark  of  insult  and  contumely. 


I   CHRONICLES    19.  6-10.     HCh^H        133 

And  he  sent  to  meet  them;  for  the  men  were  greatly 
ashamed.     And  the  king  said,  Tarry  at  Jericho  until  your 
beards  be  grown,  and  then  return.     [Ch^]  And  when  the  6 
children  of  Ammon  saw  that  they  had  made  themselves 
odious  to  David,  Hanun  and  the  children  of  Ammon  sent 
a  thousand  talents  of  silver  to  hire  them  chariots  and 
horsemen  out  of  Mesopotamia,  and  out  of  Aram-maacah, 
and  out  of  Zobah.     So  they  hired  them  thirty  and  two  7 
thousand   chariots,  and   the   king   of  Maacah   and   his 
people ;  who  came  and  pitched  before  Medeba.     And 
the  children  of  Ammon  gathered   themselves  together 
from  their  cities,  and  came  to  battle.     [H]  And  when  8 
David  heard  of  it,  he  sent  Joab,  and  all  the  host  of  the 
mighty  men.     And  the  children  of  Ammon  came  out,  9 
and  put  the  battle  in  array  at  the  gate  of  the  city :  and 
the  kings  that  were  come  were  by  themselves  in  the  field. 
Now  when  Joab  saw  that  the  battle  was  set  against  him  10 
before  and  behind,  he  chose  of  all  the  choice  men  of  Israel, 

6.  The  Ammonites  immediately  recognized  what  must  be  the 
inevitable  consequences  of  their  outrage  upon  the  ambassadors 
of  a  victorious  neighbour ;  and  they  hastened  to  secure  their 
position  by  an  alliance  with  the  petty  kings  of  Syria.  The 
number  of  chariots  supplied  by  the  king  of  Maacah  looks 
suspicious  for  so  insignificant  a  state.  The  names  of  the  allies  of 
Hanun  differ  so  widely  in  Chronicles  and  2  Samuel  that  it  is  im- 
possible to  harmonize  them. 

7.  Medeba:  the  allies  pitched  their  camp  at  Medeba,  on  the 
tableland  of  Moab,  south  of  Heshbon. 

8.  Joab  was  at  once  dispatched  with  the  nucleus  of  the 
national  army  to  take  the  field  against  the  allies. 

9.  at  the  g'ate  of  the  city :  evidently  they  fell  back  upon  the 
capital,  Rabbah,  and  formed  their  line  of  battle  before  the  gates. 

xix.  10-13.  The  Syrian  allies  had  contrived  to  turn  the  wing 
of  the  Hebrew  army  and  take  them  in  the  rear.  Joab,  therefore, 
with  a  band  of  picked  men,  directs  his  operations  against  them, 
leaving  Abishai  to  attack  the  Ammonite  warriors.  Promises  of 
mutual  support  are  given  and  words  of  encouragement  spoken 
before  the  onset. 


134  I   CHRONICLES  19.  11-17.     H 

1 1  and  put  them  in  array  against  the  Syrians.  And  the  rest 
of  the  people  he  committed  into  the  hand  of  Abishai  his 
brother,  and  they  put  themselves  in  array  against  the 

12  children  of  Ammon.  And  he  said,  If  the  Syrians  be  too 
strong  for  me,  then  thou  shalt  help  me  :  but  if  the  chil- 
dren of  Ammon  be  too  strong  for  thee,  then  I  will  help 

13  thee.  Be  of  good  courage,  and  let  us  play  the  men  for 
our  people,  and  for  the  cities  of  our  God :  and  the  Lord 

14  do  that  which  seemeth  him  good.  So  Joab  and  the 
people  that  were  with  him  drew  nigh  before  the  Syrians 

15  unto  the  battle ;  and  they  fled  before  him.  And  when 
the  children  of  Ammon  saw  that  the  Syrians  were  fled, 
they  likewise  fled  before  Abishai  his  brother,  and  entered 

16  into  the  city.  Then  Joab  came  to  Jerusalem.  And 
when  the  Syrians  saw  that  they  were  put  to  the  worse 
before  Israel,  they  sent  messengers,  and  drew  forth  the 
Syrians  that  were  beyond  the  River,  with  Shophach  the 

17  captain  of  the  host  of  Hadarezer  at  their  head.  And  it 
was  told  David  ;  and  he  gathered  all  Israel  together,  and 


13.  for  the  cities  of  our  God  :  the  phrase  is  unusual,  and,  as 
no  Hebrew  cities  were  actually  in  danger,  it  is  conjectured  that 
the  correct  reading  should  be  'for  the  Ark  of  our  God.'  Cf. 
2  Sam.  xi.  ii  (Klostermann,  Budde,  &c.). 

15.  Joab  came  to  Jerusalem  :  the  early  part  of  the  campaign 
was  now  over,  and  Joab,  having  defeated  the  Syrians  and  com- 
pelled  the  Ammonites  to  abandon  the  open  country,  returned  to 
Jerusalem  satisfied  with  his  temporary  success.  The  activity  of 
the  enemy,  however,  soon  reassumed  formidable  proportions 
through  the  formation  of  a  Syrian  confederacy  (verse  16).  There 
is  no  sufficient  reason  for  regarding  this  narrative  as  a  doublet 
of  2  Sam.  viii.  3-8,  for  it  is  not  improbable  that  Hadarezer  should 
have  recovered  strength  sufficiently  to  take  the  field  once  more 
against  David. 

16.  beyond  the  River :  Hadarezer's  authority  is  here  repre- 
sented as  extending  beyond  the  Euphrates  into  Assyria. 

17.  all  Israel :  David  mustered  the  entire  fighting  strength  of 
Israel   for  a  decisive  stroke.     The  battle  is  said  to  have   taken 


I   CHRONICLES  19.  18— 20.  2.     H  135 

passed  over  Jordan,  and  came  upon  them,  and  set  the 
battle  in  array  against  them.  So  when  David  had  put 
the  battle  in  array  against  the  Syrians,  they  fought  with 
him.  And  the  Syrians  fled  before  Israel ;  and  David  18 
slew  of  the  Syrians  the  7ne7i  of  seven  thousand  chariots, 
and  forty  thousand  footmen,  and  killed  Shophach  the 
captain  of  the  host.  And  when  the  servants  of  Hadar-  19 
ezer  saw  that  they  were  put  to  the  worse  before  Israel, 
they  made  peace  with  David,  and  served  him :  neither 
would  the  Syrians  help  the  children  of  Ammon  any  more. 

And  it  came  to  pass,  at  the  time  of  the  return  of  20 
the  year,  at  the  time  when  kings  go  out  to  battle^  that  Joab 
led  forth  the  power  of  the  army,  and  wasted  the  country 
of  the  children  of  Ammon,  and  came  and  besieged  Kab- 
bah. But  David  tarried  at  Jerusalem.  And  Joab  smote 
Kabbah,  and  overthrew  it.  And  David  took  the  crown  2 
of  their  king  from  off  his  head,  and  found  it  to  weigh  a 

place  at  Helam  (2  Sam.  x.  17),  probably  Aleppo,  which  is  called 
Helman  in  the  Assyrian  inscriptions. 

18.  the  Syrians  fled:  the  defeat  became  a  rout  and  a  carnage. 
The  numbers  of  the  slain  are  corrupt. 

19.  they  made  peace :  David  extended  his  supremacy  over  the 
domains  of  the  Aramaean  confederacy.  As  a  result  of  this  victory 
he  was  in  a  position  to  deal  with  the  Ammonites  single-handed. 

XX.  1.  the  return  of  the  year:  cf.  2  Sam.  xi.  i.  After  the 
time  of  the  early  rains  the  spring  campaign  is  opened  with 
offensive  operations  by  Joab.  The  open  country  is  desolated  and 
the  siege  of  the  capital  is  hotly  and  successfully  pressed. 

Babbah :  the  modern  'Amman,  was  situated  about  twenty-two 
miles  east  of  the  Jordan  on  one  of  the  head-waters  of  the  river 
Jabbok.  In  the  time  of  Ptolemy  Philadelphus  it  received  the  name 
of  Philadelphia,  and  was  colonized  by  Greek  settlers. 

XX.  2-3.  Cf.  2  Sam.  xii.  26-31.  We  learn  from  the  earUer 
history  that  Joab  captured  the  lower  portions  of  the  city,  which 
lay  on  either  side  of  the  Wady  'Amman,  and  then  summoned  David 
to  reduce  the  citadel. 

2.  the  crown  of  their  kiuff:    the  LXX  reads  *of  Milcom,' 


136  I   CHRONICLES  20.  3-5.     H 

talent  of  gold,  and  there  were  precious  stones  in  it ;  and 
it  was  set  upon  David's  head  :  and  he  brought  forth  the 

3  spoil  of  the  city,  exceeding  much.  And  he  brought  forth 
the  people  that  were  therein,  and  cut  them  with  saws,  and 
with  harrows  of  iron,  and  with  axes.  And  thus  did  David 
unto  all  the  cities  of  the  children  of  Ammon.  And  Da- 
vid and  all  the  people  returned  to  Jerusalem. 

4  And  it  came  to  pass  after  this,  that  there  arose  war  at 
Gezer  with  the  Philistines  :  then  Sibbecai  the  Hushathite 
slew  Sippai,  of  the  sons  of  the  giant :  and  they  were  sub- 

5  dued.  And  there  was  again  war  with  the  Philistines ; 
and  Elhanan  the  son  of  Jair  slew  Lahmi  the  brother  of 
Goliath  the  Gittite,  the  staff  of  whose  spear  was  like  a 


i.  e.  of  the  god  of  Ammon.  That  this  is  probably  the  correct 
reading  is  seen  in  the  fact  that  no  man  could  wear  a  crown 
which,  at  the  lowest  estimate,  weighed  54  lb.  avoirdupois,  and 
also  in  the  fact  that  the  same  consonants  may  be  read  either  as 
Uheir  king'  or  as  'Milcom.'  Probably  the  meaning  is  that  the 
crown  of  the  idol  weighed  half  a  hundredweight,  and  contained 
a  precious  stone  which  was  set  upon  David's  head. 

3.  cut  them  witli  saws:  clearly  the  chronicler  means  to 
state  that  David  tortured  the  captives.  The  author  of  Samuel 
so  expresses  himself  as  to  leave  it  indeterminable  whether  he 
alludes  to  torture  or  to  forced  labour  (cf.  R.  V.  margin).  Modern 
opinion  inclines  to  interpret  the  original  as  referring  to  compulsory 
toil  upon  the  royal  buildings. 

(8)  XX.  4-8.    The  Philistine  Champions  slain. 

The  three  cases  of  heroism  against  the  giants  of  Gath  are 
narrated  in  2  Sam.  xxi.  18-22.  There  they  are  preceded  by  the 
account  of  David's  narrow  escape  from  Ishbi-benob ;  but  the 
chronicler  omits  a  narrative  which  appeared  to  tarnish  David's 
fame  in  war, 

4.  at  Gezer  :  2  Samuel  reads  Gob,  an  unknown  locality.  Gezer 
lay  on  an  isolated  hill,  the  modern  Tell  Jezer,  in  the  northern 
Shephelah. 

5.  Lahmi  the  brother  of  Goliath:  the  variation  from  the 
text  of  Samuel  is  very  marked,  and  betrays  an  evident  attempt  to 
do  away  with  the  difficulty  raised  by  the  statement  of  the  earlier 
historian  that  *  Elhanan  the  son  of  Jaare-oregim  the  Beth-lehemite 


I   CHRONICLES  20.  6—21.  i.     H  Ch^        137 

weaver's  beam.     And  there  was  again  war  at  Gath,  where  6 
was  a  man  of  great  stature,  whose  fingers  and  toes  were 
four  and  twenty,  six  on  each  handy  and  six  on  each  foot ; 
and  he  also  was  born  unto  the  giant.     And  when  he  defied  7 
Israel,  Jonathan  the  son  of  Shimea  David's  brother  slew 
him.     These  were  born  unto  the  giant  in  Gath ;  and  8 
they  fell  by  the  hand  of  David,  and  by  the  hand  of  his 
servants. 

[Ch^]  And  Satan  stood  up  against  Israel,  and  moved  21 

slew  Goliath  the  Gittite.'  That  statement  has  sometimes  been 
construed  as  a  proof  that  the  story  of  David's  early  heroism  and 
victory  over  Goliath  is  merely  the  invention  of  a  popular  hero- 
worship.  The  question  is  discussed  by  Dr.  Kennedy  (in  the 
Century  Bible  on  i  Sam.  xvii),  and  with  his  conclusions  of  the 
historicity  of  David's  prowess  we  fully  concur.  Our  text  may 
perhaps  be  emended  thus,  '  Elhanan  the  son  of  Jair  the  Beth- 
lehemite  slew  (the  brother  of)  Goliath  the  Gittite.' 

The  last  of  the  Philistine  giants  fell  at  Gath  by  the  hand  of 
David's  nephew. 

(6)  xxi — xxii.  I.  The  Census  and  the  Pestilence. 
The  narrative  of  David's  sin  in  taking  the  census  is  introduced 
by  the  chronicler  because  it  leads  up  to  the  acquisition  of  the 
sacred  site  of  the  Temple.  The  material  is  derived  from  2  Sam. 
xxiv ;  it  has  been  re-edited  throughout,  and  Kittel  sees  in  it  the 
work  of  an  intermediate  Levitic  scribe  or  midrashist.  The 
variations  are  mainly  explicable  by  the  altered  view-point  of  the 
chronicler,  and  will  be  discussed  in  the  notes.  According  to  our 
narrative,  Satan  incited  David  to  number  the  people,  which  he 
does  in  spite  of  Joab's  remonstrance.  Subsequently  David 
realizes  the  sinfulness  of  the  act,  and,  on  his  repentance,  is  asked 
to  choose  between  three  forms  of  punishment.  He  selects  the 
pestilence.  Thereupon  the  destroying  angel  ravages  the  country. 
Jerusalem,  however,  is  spared,  and  David  sacrifices  upon  the  spot 
where  the  angel  of  destruction  had  appeared.  This  spot  thus 
becomes  the  consecrated  site  of  the  Temple. 

xxi.  1-7.     The  Census. 

1.  Satan  .  .  .  moved  David  to  niunber  Israel:  cf.  2  Sam. 
xxiv.  I,  'The  Lord  .  .  .  moved  David  against  them.'  The  word 
'  Satan  '  signifies  '  an  adversary  ' ;  but  it  is  used  here,  without  the 
article,  as  a  proper  name.     It  is  the  contention  of  Ewald  that  the 


138  I   CHRONICLES  21.  2-4.     Ch^ 

2  David  to  number  Israel.  And  David  said  to  Joab  and 
to  the  princes  of  the  people,  Go,  number  Israel  from 
Beer  sheba  even  to  Dan  ;  and  bring  me  word,  that  I  may 

3  know  the  sum  of  them.  And  Joab  said,  The  Lord  make 
his  people  an  hundred  times  so  many  more  as  they  be  : 
but,  my  lord  the  king,  are  they  not  all  my  lord's  servants  ? 
why  doth  my  lord  require  this  thing  ?  why  will  he  be  a 

4  cause  of  guilt  unto  Israel  ?   Nevertheless  the  king's  word 


word  '  Satan '  stood  originally  in  2  Samuel  also  ;  but  there  are 
good  grounds  upon  which  the  difference  between  the  two 
narratives  may  be  explained  without  such  a  supposition.  The 
belief  in  a  spirit  who  is  the  author  of  evil  is  implicit  in  the  early 
religious  ideas  of  the  Hebrew  people.  It  is  quite  probable  that 
contact  with  Babylonia  and  Persia  had  much  to  do  with  the 
growth  of  such  a  belief;  but  it  seems  to  have  developed  along 
with  the  growing  sense  of  the  incongruity  of  tracing  moral  evil 
directly  to  God.  The  supposed  antagonism  between  Samuel 
and  Chronicles  in  this  respect  is  rather  apparent  than  real,  and 
can  be  fully  explained  on  the  grounds  of  the  advance  in  moral 
susceptibility  made  by  Hebrew  thinkers.  In  the  interval  between 
the  composition  of  the  two  histories  this  advance  was  very  marked. 
And  the  chronicler,  with  perhaps  a  finer  sense  of  the  holiness  of 
Jehovah,  here  refuses  to  speak  of  Him  as  the  author  of  evil.  At 
the  same  time  no  dualism  is  involved  in  his  indication  of  Satan  as 
the  author  of  the  temptation  in  question.  The  chronicler  simply 
ignores  the  problem  of  the  origin  of  evil,  and  contents  himself  with 
a  definite  reference  to  the  activities  of  an  evil  spirit  in  the  tempta- 
tion which  assailed  David. 

The  author  of  Samuel  had  left  it  doubtful  at  the  outset  of  his 
narrative  whether  the  proposition  to  take  the  census  was  morally 
wrong.  The  chronicler,  by  ascribing  it  to  Satan,  leaves  no 
shadow  of  doubt  concerning  its  sinfulness. 

2.  to  Joab  and  to  the  princes  of  the  people :  as  it  was  the 
compilation  of  a  military  register  for  the  purpose  of  conscription 
that  David  had  in  view,  he  entrusted  the  task  to  his  military 
chieftains. 

from  Beer-sheba  even  to  Dan :  the  chronicler's  reversal  of 
the  order  of  the  towns  constituting  the  limits  of  the  land,  as 
compared  with  the  wording  in  2  Samuel,  is  quite  likely  to  be  due 
to  a  sense  of  the  superior  importance  of  the  southern  kingdom. 

3.  a  canse  of  g-uilt  unto  Israel :  it  is  not  stated  wherein  the 
sinfulness    of  the  census  lay.     It  was   probably  a  wholly  new 


I   CHRONICLES  21.  5-8.     Ch'^  139 

prevailed  against  Joab.     Wherefore  Joab  departed,  and 
went  throughout  all  Israel,  and  came  to  Jerusalem.     And  5 
Joab  gave  up  the  sum  of  the  numbering  of  the  people 
unto  David.     And  all  they  of  Israel  were  a  thousand 
thousand  and  an  hundred  thousand  men  that  drew  sword  : 
and  Judah  was  four  hundred  threescore  and  ten  thousand 
men  that  drew  sword.     But  Levi  and  Benjamin  counted  6 
he  not  among  them  :  for  the  king's  word  was  abominable 
to   Joab.     And  God  was   displeased   with   this   thing;  7 
therefore  he  smote  Israel.     And  David  said  unto  God,  I  8 
have  sinned  greatly,  in  that  I  have  done  this  thing :  but 


departure  prompted  by  pride  of  power — a  kind  of  overgrown 
imperialism. 

4.  tlie  king's  word  prevailed  :  as  absolute  monarch  David  over- 
ruled all  objections,  and  Joab  commenced  the  taking  of  the  census. 

came  to  Jerusalem :  the  chronicler  has  not  merely  repre- 
sented the  census  as  commencing  at  Beer-sheba,  but  he  omits  all 
details  of  its  progress  (cf.  2  Sam.  xxiv.  5-8).  The  task  of  Joab  is 
said  to  have  occupied  nine  months  and  twenty  days. 

5.  Here  we  have  the  common  difficulty  of  numerical  dis- 
crepancies in  a  marked  form.  The  figures  given  in  this  verse 
differ  from  those  of  2  Sam.  xxiv.  9  and  also  from  those  of  i  Chron. 
xxvii.  1-5.  Corruption  of  the  text  may  be  one  cause  of  these 
discrepancies.  It  is  difficult  to  explain  the  number  of  Israelite 
warriors  as  1,100,000,  while  Samuel  places  the  number  at  800,000  ; 
but  the  reduction  of  the  numbers  for  Judah  from  500,000  to  470,000 
may  be  explained  by  the  fact  that  Levi  and  Benjamin  are  expressly 
omitted  in  the  chronicler's  estimate. 

6.  Levi  and  Benjamin  counted  lie  not:  the  verse  is  an 
addition  of  the  chronicler.  According  to  the  Deuteronomic  law, 
Levi  was  to  be  exempted  from  enumeration  in  the  political  census 
(cf.  Num.  i.  47-54)  ;  but  we  have  no  further  grounds  for  crediting 
the  statement  concerning  the  omission  of  Benjamin. 

*7,  God  was  displeased  with  this  tking* :  these  words  are  not 
found  in  the  earlier  history.  The  chronicler  implies  that  David's 
repentance  was  awakened  when  he  saw  the  Divine  anger  mani- 
fested in  the  pestilence,  whereas  the  author  of  Samuel  shows  how 
David  was  troubled  by  a  guilty  conscience  (verse  10).  Evidently 
the  conviction  of  sin  was  due  both  to  subjective  and  to  objective 
causes. 

8.  I  have  sinned :  David  frankly  acknowledges  his  en-or. 


I40  I   CHRONICLES  21.  9-16.     Ch'' 

now,  put  away,  I  beseech  thee,  the  iniquity  of  thy  servant ; 

9  for  I  have  done  very  foohshly.     And  the  Lord  spake 

10  unto  Gad,  David's  seer,  saying,  Go  and  speak  unto  David, 

saying,  Thus  saith  the  Lord,  I  offer  thee  three  things ; 
ir  choose  thee  one  of  them,  that  I  may  do  it  unto  thee.     So 

Gad  came  to  David,  and  said  unto  him.  Thus  saith  the 

12  Lord,  Take  which  thou  wilt ;  either  three  years  of  famine ; 
or  three  months  to  be  consumed  before  thy  foes,  while 
that  the  sword  of  thine  enemies  overtaketh  thee  ;  or  else 
three  days  the  sword  of  the  Lord,  even  pestilence  in  the 
land,  and  the  angel  of  the  Lord  destroying  throughout  all 
the  coasts  of  Israel.     Now  therefore  consider  what  answer 

13  I  shall  return  to  him  that  sent  me.  And  David  said  unto 
Gad,  I  am  in  a  great  strait :  let  me  fall  now  into  the  hand 
of  the  Lord  ;  for  very  great  are  his  mercies :  and  let  me 

14  not  fall  into  the  hand  of  man.  So  the  Lord  sent  a 
pestilence  upon  Israel :  and  there  fell  of  Israel  seventy 

15  thousand  men.  And  God  sent  an  angel  unto  Jerusalem 
to  destroy  it :  and  as  he  was  about  to  destroy,  the  Lord 
beheld,  and  he  repented  him  of  the  evil,  and  said  to  the 
destroying  angel,  It  is  enough;  now  stay  thine  hand. 
And  the  angel  of  the  Lord  stood  by  the  threshing-floor 

1 6  of  Oman  the  Jebusite.     And  David  lifted  up  his  eyes, 


9.  Gad,  David's  seer :  Gad  had  joined  David  during  his 
outlaw  life  ;  he  appears  in  the  varied  roles  of  councillor,  musician, 
and  historian  (cf.  i  Chron.  xxix.  29  ;  2  Chron.  xxix.  25). 

12.  the  ang-el  of  the  IiOBD :  these  words  are  an  addition  to 
the  earlier  narrative,  and  further  indicate  the  increased  belief  in 
angelic  ministrations. 

13.  very  g-reat  are  his  mercies :  David's  choice  of  the 
punishment  was  determined  by  a  sense  of  God's  mercy. 

15.  an  angfel:  probably  the  article  has  fallen  out;  it  is  the 
destroying  angel  who  is  intended. 

Qrnan  the  Jebusite.      In  2  Samuel  we  read  '  Araunah  '  and 


I   CHRONICLES  21.  17-22.     Ch^  141 

and  saw  the  angel  of  the  Lord  stand  between  the  earth 
and  the  heaven,  having  a  drawn  sword  in  his  hand  stretched 
out  over  Jerusalem.     Then  David  and  the  elders,  clothed 
in  sackcloth,  fell  upon  their  faces.     And  David  said  unto 
God,  Is  it  not  I  that  commanded  the  people  to  be  num-  17 
bered?  even  I  it  is  that  have  sinned  and  done  very 
wickedly;  but  these  sheep,  what  have  they  done?  let 
thine  hand,  I  pray  thee,  O  Lord  my  God,  be  against  me, 
and  against  my  father's  house ;  but  not  against  thy  people, 
that  they  should  be  plagued.     Then  the  angel  of  the 
Lord  commanded  Gad  to  say  to  David,  that  David  should  18 
go  up,  and  rear  an  altar  unto  the  Lord  in  the  threshing- 
floor  of  Oman  the  Jebusite.     And  David  went  up  at  the 
saying  of  Gad,  which  he  spake  in  the  name  of  the  Lord.  19 
And  Oman  turned  back,  and  saw  the  angel ;  and  his  four 
sons  that  were  with  him  hid  themselves.     Now  Oman  20 
was  threshing  wheat.     And  as  David  came  to  Oman, 
Oman  looked  and   saw  David,  and  went  out  of   the  21 
threshing-floor,  and  bowed  himself  to  David  with  his  face 
to  the  ground.     Then  David  said  to  Oman,  Give  me  the 
place  of  this  threshing-floor,  that  I  may  build  thereon  an  22 


in  the  LXX  '  Ornah.'     Oman  was  one  of  the  remaining  Jebusite 
inhabitants  of  Jerusalem. 

16.  The  chronicler  has  here  expanded  the  simple  statement  of 
2  Samuel  that  '  he  saw  the  angel  that  smote  the  people.' 

18.  the  angel  of  the  IiORD  commanded  Gad :  still  we  note 
the  prominence  of  the  angel-ministry.  The  Divine  command  to 
build  an  altar  on  Oman's  threshing-floor  involves  the  consecration 
of  the  spot  where  the  angel  had  stood. 

20.  and  saw  the  angel :  it  is  quite  possible  that  the  text 
should  read  'and  saw  the  king,'  as  in  the  LXX.  The  error 
would  easily  arise,  as  the  Hebrew  words  differ  only  by  a  single 
letter  ("iJ^bo  maVak,  '  angel,'  and  "^bo  tnelek,  *  king '). 

Oman  was  threshing  wheat:  this  addition  of  the  chronicler's 
seems  to  be  an  echo  of  the  LXX  reading  of  2  Sam.  xxiv.  15, 
'when  the  days  were  the  days  of  wheat  harvest,'  &c. 


142  I   CHRONICLES  21.  23-27.     Ch^ 

altar  unto  the  Lord  :  for  the  full  price  shalt  thou  give  it 
me:  that  the  plague  may  be  stayed  from  the  people. 

23  And  Oman  said  unto  David,  Take  it  to  thee,  and  let  my 
lord  the  king  do  that  which  is  good  in  his  eyes :  lo,  I 
give  thee  the  oxen  for  burnt  offerings,  and  the  threshing 
instruments  for  wood,  and  the  wheat  for  the  meal  offer- 

24  ing ;  I  give  it  all.  And  king  David  said  to  Oman,  Nay  ; 
but  I  will  verily  buy  it  for  the  full  price  :  for  I  will  not 
take  that  which  is  thine  for  the  Lord,  nor  offer  a  burnt 

25  offering  without  cost.     So  David  gave  to  Oman  for  the 

26  place  six  hundred  shekels  of  gold  by  weight.  And  David 
built  there  an  altar  unto  the  Lord,  and  offered  burnt 
offerings  and  peace  offerings,  and  called  upon  the  Lord  ; 
and  he  answered  him  from  heaven  by  fire  upon  the  altar 

27  of  burnt  offering.  And  the  Lord  commanded  the  angel  \ 
and  he  put  up  his  sword  again  into  the  sheath  thereof. 


22.  for  the  full  price  ;  David's  design  is  to  purchase  the  site. 

23.  I  give  it  all:  the  obscure  words  of  2  Samuel  have  been 
incorrectly  interpreted  as  implying  that  Oman  was  the  dethroned 
king  of  Jebus.  Oman's  free  offer  of  the  requisites  for  sacrifice 
was  probably  made  in  the  true  spirit  of  Oriental  bargaining,  and 
was  never  meant  to  be  taken  literally. 

24.  I  will  verily  buy  it:  David  recognizes  the  principle 
which  is  the  spring  of  all  genuine  sacrifice.  It  is  the  voluntary 
and  self-renouncing  nature  of  the  gift  that  alone  makes  sacrifice 
valid. 

25.  six  hundred  shekels  of  g-old :  a  sum  of  about  ;^i,2oo.  In 
2  Samuel  it  is  given  as  fifty  shekels  of  silver,  i.e.  £']. 

26.  David  built  there  an  altar:  on  the  same  spot  sub- 
sequently stood  the  great  altar  of  burnt  offering  of  Solomon's 
Temple.  To-day  the  spot  is  covered  by  the  Kubbet-es-Sahra,  or 
Dome  of  the  Rock,  one  of  the  most  famous  Mohammedan  mosques 
in  the  world. 

he  answered  him  from  heaven  by  fire  :  this  visible  sign  of 
God's  acceptance  was  a  further  indication  that  the  spot  was  to  be 
sacred. 

2*7 — xxii.  1.  These  five  verses  form  an  appendix  to  the 
narrative  of  the  consecration  of  Orr.an's   threshing-floor.     They 


I   CHRONICLES  21.  28—22.  3.     Ch^  Ch       143 

At  that  time,  when  David  saw  that   the  Lord  had  28 
answered  him  in  the  threshing-floor  of  Oman  the  Jebusite, 
then  he  sacrificed  there.     For  the  tabernacle  of  the  Lord,  29 
which  Moses  made  in  the  wilderness,  and  the  altar  of 
burnt  offering,  were  at  that  time  in  the  high  place  at 
Gibeon.     But  David  could  not  go  before  it  to  inquire  of  30 
God  :  for  he  was  afraid  because  of  the  sword  of  the  angel 
of  the  Lord.     [Ch]  Then  David  said,  This  is  the  house  22 
of  the  Lord  God,  and  this  is  the  altar  of  burnt  offering 
for  Israel. 

And    David    commanded    to    gather    together    the  2 
strangers  that  were  in  the  land  of  Israel ;   and  he  set 
masons  to  hew  wrought  stones  to  build  the  house  of 
God.     And  David  prepared  iron  in  abundance  for  the  3 

point  out  the  special  circumstances  of  the  case  which  made  it 
permissible  for  David  to  sacrifice  in  a  way  contrary  to  the 
Deuteronomic  regulations.  These  circumstances  were  the  im- 
possibility of  his  going  to  the  Tabernacle  in  Gibeon,  where  the 
pestilence  probably  still  raged.  The  proofs  of  God's  mercy 
which  were  manifested  at  the  time  led  David  to  sanctify  the  spot 
to  be  used  henceforth  for  burnt  offering.  In  indicating  this  spot 
as  the  site  of  the  Temple,  the  chronicler  was  evidently  following 
a  reliable  historical  tradition.  In  the  parenthetical  statements  of 
verses  28-30  we  probably  have  the  chronicler's  original  addition 
to  the  re  edited  version  of  2  Sam.,  which  he  used  as  his  source. 

(7)  xxii.  2-19.  Preparation  for  the  Temple. 
It  is  quite  natural  that  the  chronicler,  whose  main  interest  in 
earlier  history  concerns  itself  with  the  religious  aspects  of  the 
national  life,  should  immediately  follow  the  narrative  of  the  con- 
secration of  the  Temple-site  by  an  account  of  the  king's  provision 
for  the  establishment  of  the  national  sanctuary  and  its  worship. 
Thus  in  ch.  xxii  he  describes  David's  endeavours  to  order  the 
religious  institutions  of  his  people.  The  entire  narrative  is  the 
independent  work  of  the  chronicler,  but  is  based  upon  some 
Levitic  authorities. 

xxii.  2-5.     Materials  for  the  Temple-building. 

2.  the  strang-ers :  i.  e.  the  descendants  of  the  Canaanites 
whom  the  Israelite  conquerors  had  left  in  the  land  (cf.  2  Chron. 
viii.  7  ff.). 


144  I   CHRONICLES  22.  4-8.     Ch 

nails  for  the  doors  of  the  gates,  and  for  the  couplings; 

4  and  brass  in  abundance  without  weight ;  and  cedar  trees 
without  number :   for  the  Zidonians  and  they  of  Tyre 

5  brought  cedar  trees  in  abundance  to  David.  And  David 
said,  Solomon  my  son  is  young  and  tender,  and  the 
house  that  is  to  be  builded  for  the  Lord  must  be  exceed- 
ing magnifical,  of  fame  and  of  glory  throughout  all 
countries  :  I  will  therefore  make  preparation  for  it.  So 
David  prepared  abundantly  before  his  death. 

6  Then  he  called  for  Solomon  his  son,  and  charged  him 

7  to  build  an  house  for  the  Lord,  the  God  of  Israel.  And 
David  said  to  Solomon  his  son.  As  for  me,  it  was  in  my 
heart  to  build  an  house  unto  the  name  of  the  Lord  my 

8  God.  But  the  word  of  the  Lord  came  to  me,  saying, 
Thou  hast  shed  blood  abundantly,  and  hast  made  great 

4.  they  of  Tyre  broug-ht  cedar  trees :  a  regular  traffic  was 
kept  up  between  Israel  and  Phoenicia,  and  both  David  and 
Solomon  subsequently  made  commercial  treaties  with  Hiram, 
king  of  Tyre.  In  exchange  for  the  Tyrian  cedars  Israel  probably 
sent  agricultural  produce. 

5.  David  prepared  abundantly:  these  vast  preparations  for 
the  Temple  were  in  due  proportion  to  David's  ambitious  archi- 
tectural schemes ;  and  the  whole  was  prompted  by  a  burning  zeal 
for  the  glory  of  Jehovah. 

xxii.  6-16.      The  Building  of  the  Temple  entrusted  to  Solomon. 

David  calls  Solomon  to  a  formal  audience  ;  he  informs  him  of 
his  early  wish  to  build  a  Temple  to  Jehovah,  and  of  God's  refusal 
to  permit  him,  as  a  man  of  bloodshed,  to  execute  his  schemes  ; 
and  he  now  solemnly  entrusts  the  work  to  his  son.  Throughout 
the  history  the  wars  undertaken  by  David  for  the  establishment 
of  the  kingdom  are  looked  upon  as  the  wars  of  Jehovah.  No  slur 
is  cast  upon  David,  therefore,  when  he  is  prohibited  from  building 
the  Temple  ;  it  is  merely  the  seeming  incongruity  of  bloodshed 
and  temple-building  that  is  emphasized  ;  and  the  two  duties  are 
entrusted  to  men  whose  circumstances  fitted  them  for  the  divergent 
undertakings. 

6.  Solomon :  the  name  (Heb.  Shelomo)  means  *  rich  in  peace  ' ; 
cf.  verse  9.  David  had  had  little  leisure,  amid  the  anxiety  of 
incessant  campaigning,  to  execute  the  works  of  peace. 


I   CHRONICLES   22.  9-14.     Ch  145 

wars :  thou  shalt  not  build  an  house  unto  my  name, 
because  thou  hast  shed  much  blood  upon  the  earth  in 
my  sight :  behold,  a  son  shall  be  born  to  thee,  who  shall  9 
be  a  man  of  rest ;  and  I  will  give  him  rest  from  all  his 
enemies  round  about :  for  his  name  shall  be  Solomon, 
and  I  will  give  peace  and  quietness  unto  Israel  in  his 
days:   he  shall  build  an  house  for  my  name;   and  he  10 
shall  be  my  son,  and  I  will  be  his  father ;   and  I  will 
establish  the  throne  of  his  kingdom  over  Israel  for  ever. 
Now,  my  son,  the  Lord  be  with  thee  ;  and  prosper  thou,  1 1 
and  build  the  house  of  the  Lord  thy  God,  as  he  hath 
spoken    concerning    thee.     Only   the   Lord  give   thee  12 
discretion    and    understanding,   and    give    thee    charge 
concerning  Israel ;  that  so  thou  mayest  keep  the  law  of 
the  Lord  thy  God.     Then  shalt  thou  prosper,  if  thou  13 
observe  to  do  the  statutes  and  the  judgements  which 
the  Lord  charged   Moses  with  concerning  Israel :   be 
strong,    and   of   good    courage ;    fear    not,   neither  be 
dismayed.     Now,  behold,  in  my  affliction  I  have  pre-  14 
pared  for  the  house  of  the  Lord  an  hundred  thousand 
talents  of  gold,  and  a  thousand  thousand  talents  of  silver ; 

12.  the  law  of  the  IiOBD  thy  God:  the  word  Maw'  (Heb. 
torah)  means  '  instruction  *  or  '  teaching '  ;  in  the  mind  of  the 
chronicler  it  would  naturally  stand  for  the  Deuteronomic  code  of 
moral  and  religious  instruction  contained  in  the  Hexateuch, 

13.  The  promises  and  exhortations  uttered  by  David  betray 
a  very  close  familiarity  with  '  the  law  of  Moses.'  It  is  an  accepted 
belief  of  modern  scholarship  that  the  Mosaic  legislation,  as  we 
possess  its  record  to-day,  had  undergone  very  considerable  develop- 
ment between  the  days  of  Moses  and  its  final  committal  to 
writing ;  but  this  in  no  way  conflicts  with  a  belief  in  its  Mosaic 
basis  nor  with  its  Divine  sanction. 

14.  in  my  affliction :  the  words  probably  refer  to  the  king's 
zealous  labours  for  the  future  Temple  during  the  unsettled  years 
of  his  warlike  reign.     The  LXX  reads,  '  in  my  poverty.' 

an  hundred  thousand  talents  of  g'old.     The  talent  (Heb. 
kikkar)  was  an  ingot  or   bar   of  metal ;    its  value  can   only   be 


146  I   CHRONICLES  22.  15-19.     Ch 

and  of  brass  and  iron  without  weight ;  for  it  is  in  abun- 
dance :  timber  also  and   stone  have  I  prepared ;   and 

15  thou  mayest  add  thereto.  Moreover  there  are  workmen 
with  thee  in  abundance,  hewers  and  workers  of  stone  and 
timber,  and  all  men  that  are  cunning  in  any  manner  of 

16  work ;  of  the  gold,  the  silver,  and  the  brass,  and  the  iron, 
there  is  no  number ;  arise  and  be  doing,  and  the  Lord 

17  be  with  thee.     David  also  commanded  all  the  princes  of 

18  Israel  to  help  Solomon  his  son,  sayings  Is  not  the  Lord 
your  God  with  you  ?  and  hath  he  not  given  you  rest  on 
every  side  ?  for  he  hath  delivered  the  inhabitants  of  the 
land  into  mine  hand ;  and  the  land  is  subdued  before 

19  the  Lord,  and  before  his  people.  Now  set  your  heart 
and  your  soul  to  seek  after  the  Lord  your  God;  arise 

approximately  determined  by  the  aid  of  Josephus  and  of  ancient 
coins  and  weights.  Both  the  Babylonian  and  the  Phoenician 
systems  of  weights  seem  to  have  been  in  use  in  Palestine,  the 
former  system  giving  to  the  shekel  and  talent  double  the  value 
given  by  the  latter.  Moreover,  a  double  scale,  heavy  and  light, 
seems  to  have  been  used  in  each  system,  one  being  twice  the 
weight  of  the  other.  Probably  the  Phoenician  system  was  in 
use  in  David's  time.  If  this  supposition  be  correct,  we  may 
value  the  shekel  of  gold  at  £2  is.  od.,  and  the  shekel  of  silver  at 
2S.  gd.  (heavy  scale).  Then,  reckoning  the  talent  as  3,000  shekels, 
we  find  that  David's  provision  amounted  to  the  almost  fabulous 
sum  of  ;^6i5,oco,ooo  of  gold  and  ^^12,500,000  of  silver.  If  the 
lighter  scale  were  employed,  it  would  give  ;^307, 500,000  of  gold 
and  ;i^2o6,25o,ooo  of  silver.  Such  sums  seem  incredibly  large,  and 
it  is  quite  possible  that  textual  errors  have  arisen  or  that  some 
scale  of  reckoning  was  used  of  which  we  are  ignorant.  Still, 
vast  treasures  were  not  infrequently  stored  by  Eastern  monarchs 
and  plundered  by  their  conquerors,  so  that  even  the  great  sums 
named  above  are  not  wholly  incredible. 

17-19.  David^s  Charge  to  the  Princes.  David  reminds  the 
princes  of  the  fact  that  God  had  given  him  victory  on  all  sides  and 
had  reduced  the  kingdom  to  perfect  order.  He.  therefore,  exhorts 
them  to  support  Solomon  in  carrying  out  the  plans  he  had  formed 
for  the  religious  life  of  the  nation.  The  sanctuary  is  to  be  built 
and  the  sacred  Ark  safely  housed  fof  the  honour  of  Jehovah. 


I   CHRONICLES  23.  i,  2.     Ch  147 

therefore,  and  build  ye  the  sanctuary  of  the  Lord  God, 
to  bring  the  ark  of  the  covenant  of  the  Lord,  and  the 
holy  vessels  of  God,  into  the  house  that  is  to  be  built  to 
the  name  of  the  Lord. 

Now  David  was  old  and  full  of  days ;  and  he  made  23 
Solomon  his  son  king  over  Israel.     And   he  gathered  2 
together  all  the  princes  of  Israel,  with  the  priests  and  the 

(3)  xxiii-xxvi.     Organization  of  the  Leviies. 

These  four  chapters  deal  with  the  leaders  of  the  cultus  of  the 
Templa^  the  Levites,  priests,  musicians,  guardians,  and  other 
officials.  They  are  the  independent  work  of  the  chronicler,  save 
for  a  few  possible  later  editorial  additions.  While  they  purport 
to  represent  the  state  of  things  extant  at  the  close  of  David's  reign 
one  cannot  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that  the  chronicler  wrote  with 
the  contemporary  later  organization  of  the  Levites  in  his  mind. 
That  is  to  say,  he  practically  presented  what  to  him  were  the 
modern  conditions  of  the  Levitic  service  which  had  been  moulded 
by  David  seven  hundred  years  earlier.  This  will  be  apparent  in 
our  study  of  the  text.  But  we  may  even  go  further  and  say  that, 
if  we  are  to  credit  the  descriptions  of  such  an  historian  asjosephus, 
then  the  chronicler  describes  a  state  of  things  which  was  ideal 
rather  than  real  even  in  his  own  day.  Our  author  first  gives  the 
numbers  and  divisions  of  the  Levites  (ch.  xxiii) ;  then  he  passes  on 
to  a  catalogue  of  the  Aaronic  priests  (ch.  xxiv)  and  the  orders  of 
the  Temple  musicians  (ch.  xxv)  ;  and  finally  he  gives  a  list  of 
various  minor  officials  of  the  Temple  (ch.  xxvi). 

xxiii.  Levitical  Organization. 
Undoubtedly  the  chronicler  composed  this  chapter  by  the  aid  of 
documentary  material.  This  material  is  of  such  a  nature  as  to 
vindicate  the  description  of  the  institutions  referred  to  as  Davidic ; 
yet  it  bears  every  token  of  later  Levitical  writings  and  reflects  the 
conditions  extant  in  the  fourth,  rather  than  the  eleventh,  century  b.c. 

1.  lie  made  Solomon  . . .  king-:  this  may  be  taken  to  mean  that 
David  designated  Solomon  as  his  successor.  It  was  at  this  same 
time  that  David  fully  organized  the  administration  of  his  kingdom 
and  laid  down  his  regulations  for  the  ecclesiastical  affairs  of  the 
land  under  his  successors. 

xxiii.  2-5.     Census  and  Division  of  the  Levites. 

2.  A  matter  of  such  national  importance  as  that  which  David  had 
in  hand  necessitated  his  convening  the  assembly  of  representatives 
of  the  tribes. 

L   2 


148  I   CHRONICLES  23.  3-11.     Ch 

3  Levites.  And  the  Levites  were  numbered  from  thirty 
years  old  and  upward :  and  their  number  by  their  polls, 

4  man  by  man,  was  thirty  and  eight  thousand.  Of  these, 
twenty  and  four  thousand  were  to  oversee  the  work  of  the 
house  of  the  Lord  ;  and  six  thousand  were  officers  and 

5  judges :  and  four  thousand  were  doorkeepers ;  and  four 
thousand  praised  the  Lord  with  the  instruments  which  I 

6  made,  said  David,  to  praise  therewith.  And  David 
divided  them  into  courses  according  to  the  sons  of  Levi ; 

7  Gershon,    Kohath,   and   Merari.     Of  the   Gershonites ; 

8  Ladan  and   Shimei.     The  sons  of  Ladan ;    Jehiel  the 

9  chief,  and  Zetham,  and  Joel,  three.  The  sons  of  Shimei ; 
Shelomoth,  and  Haziel,  and  Haran,  three.     These  were 

10  the  heads  of  the  fathers'  houses  of  Ladan.  And  the  sons 
of  Shimei ;  Jahath,  Zina,  and  Jeush,  and  Beriah.     These 

1 1  four  were  the  sons  of  Shimei.  And  Jahath  was  the  chief, 
and  Zizah  the  second  :  but  Jeush  and  Beriah  had  not 
many  sons ;  therefore  they  became  a  fathers'  house  in 

3.  from  thirty  years  old :  probably  an  error  for  '  twenty  years 
old '  :  cf.  verses  24  and  27.  In  Num.  iv.  3,  23,  35,  and  47  we  learn 
that  the  age  at  which  Levitical  service  begun  w^as  generally  thirty, 
although  in  Num.  viii.  23  we  find  the  age  given  as  twenty.  The 
age-limit  seems  to  have  been  gradually  extended,  and,  as  only  a 
few  Levites  returned  from  the  Captivity  (cf.  Ezra  ii.  40-42,  &c.), 
the  period  of  service  was  definitely  fixed  by  Zerubbabel  as 
commencing  in  the  twentieth  year  (cf.  Ezra  iii.  8). 

4,  5.  Of  the  38,000  Levites,  24,000  conducted  the  service  of  the 
Temple-cultus,  6,000  administered  justice,  4,000  were  guardians 
of  the  Temple-doors,  and  4,000  were  musicians. 

xxiii.  6-23.     Lcviiic  Households. 

6.  The  ancient  threefold  division  of  the  tribe  of  Levi  into 
Gershonites,  Kohathites,  and  Merarites  is  taken  as  the  basis  of 
division  for  the  Levitic  service. 

(a)  7-11.  The  Gershonites.  Two  lines  of  descent  from  Gershon 
are  given,  but  the  exact  relationship  of  the  founders  of  these  fathers' 
houses  is  not  stated.  There  seems  to  be  some  confusion  in  the 
names  (cf.  Exod.  vi.  17,  &c.). 


I   CHRONICLES  23.  12-24.     Ch  R  149 

one  reckoning.     The  sons  of  Kohath ;   Amram,  Izhar,  12 
Hebron,  and  Uzziel,  four.     The  sons  of  Amram;  Aaron  13 
and  Moses  :  and  Aaron  was  separated,  that  he  should 
sanctify  the  most  holy  things,  he  and  his  sons,  for  ever, 
to  burn  incense  before  the  Lord,  to  minister  unto  him, 
and  to  bless  in  his  name,  for  ever.     But  as  for  Moses  the  14 
man  of  God,  his  sons  were  named  among  the  tribe  of 
Levi.     The  sons  of  Moses ;  Gershom  and  Eliezer.     The  15, 16 
sons  of  Gershom;  Shebuel  the  chief.     And  the  sons  of  17 
Eliezer  were,  Rehabiah  the  chief.     And  Eliezer  had  none 
other  sons ;  but  the  sons  of  Rehabiah  were  very  many. 
The  sons  of  Izhar;  Shelomith  the  chief.     The  sons  of  18, 19 
Hebron ;  Jeriah  the  chief,  Amariah  the  second,  Jahaziel 
the  third,  and  Jekameam  the  fourth.     The  sons  of  Uzziel ;  20 
Micah  the  chief,  and  Isshiah  the  second.     The  sons  of  21 
Merari    Mahli  and  Mushi.     The  sons  of  Mahli ;  Eleazar 
and  Kish.     And  Eleazar  died,  and  had  no  sons,   but  22 
daughters  only  :  and  their  brethren  the  sons  of  Kish  took 
them  to  wife.     The  sons  of  Mushi ;  Mahli,  and  Eder,  and  23 
Jeremoth,  three.     [R]  These  were  the  sons  of  Levi  after  24 

{h)  12-20.  The  Kohathites.  Among  the  four  sons  of  Kohath 
special  prominence  is  given  to  the  office  of  Aaron  and  to  the 
descendants  of  Moses. 

13.  that  he  should  sanctify  the  most  holy  thing's,  he :  R.V. 
(marg.)  reads  'to  sanctify  as  most  holy  him,' and  the  clause  should 
be  interpreted  as  referring  to  Aaron  himself,  in  that  the  deliberate 
setting  apart  of  his  life  for  God's  service  constituted  a  sanctifying 
of  himself  to  be  '  a  most  holy  one.'  In  this  consecrated  life  he 
burned  incense,  performed  the  priestly  ministry,  and  pronounced 
the  blessing  upon  the  worshippers. 

18.  Izhar  was  a  brother  of  Amram,  as  also  was  Kehron  (verse 
19).  Thus  we  have  nine  houses  descended  from  Kohath,  in 
addition  to  the  house  of  Aaron. 

(c)  21-23.  The  Merarites.  Only  four  houses  are  traced  to 
Merari. 

xxiii.  24-32.  Appendix,     Possibly  these  nine  verses  are  a  later 


ISO  I   CHRONICLES  23.  25-31.     R 

their  fathers'  houses,  even  the  heads  of  the  fathers'  houses 
of  those  of  them  that  were  counted,  in  the  number  of 
names  by  their  polls,  who  did  the  work  for  the  service  of 
the  house  of  the  Lord,  from  twenty  years  old  and  upward. 

25  For  David  said.  The  Lord,  the  God  of  Israel,  hath  given 
rest  unto  his  people;  and  he  dwelleth  in  Jerusalem  for 

26  ever :  and  also  the  Levites  shall  no  more  have  need  to 
carry  the  tabernacle  and  all  the  vessels  of  it  for  the  service 

2;^  thereof.  For  by  the  last  words  of  David  the  sons  of 
Levi  were  numbered,  from  twenty  years  old  and  upward. 

28  For  their  office  was  to  wait  on  the  sons  of  Aaron  for  the 
service  of  the  house  of  the  Lord,  in  the  courts,  and  in 
the  chambers,  and  in  the  purifying  of  all  holy  things, 

29  even  the  work  of  the  service  of  the  house  of  God ;  for 
the  shewbread  also,  and  for  the  fine  flour  for  a  meal 
offering,  whether  of  unleavened  wafers,  or  of  that  which 
is  baked  in  the  pan,  or  of  that  which  is  soaked,  and  for 

30  all  manner  of  measure  and  size ;  and  to  stand  every 
morning  to  thank  and  praise  the  Lord,  and  likewise  at 

31  even ;  and  to  offer  all  burnt  offerings  unto  the  Lord,  in 
the  sabbaths,  in  the  new  moons,  and  on  the  set  feasts,  in 
number  according  to  the  ordinance  concerning   them, 


editorial  addition  to  the  record  of  the  Levitic  houses,  in  that  the 
age  limit  given  in  verses  24  and  27  conflicts  with  that  given  in 
verse  3. 

25,  26.  The  nev/  conditions  of  Levitic  service  in  the  settled 
kingdom  are  given  as  reasons  for  the  extended  service  of  the 
tribe. 

27.  by  the  last  words  of  David:  this  cannot  be  rendered 
'according  to  the  later  histories  of  David,'  as  some  suggest:  it 
must  refer  to  the  closing  acts  of  his  reign. 

29.  the  shewbread :  cf.  Lev.  xxiv.  8  ff. 

all  manner  of  measure  and  size :  i.  e.  to  superintend  public 
weights  and  measures. 

30.  to  thank  and  praise  the  LORD :  this  was  the  office  of  the 
musicians  of  the  Temple,  and  it  is  more  fully  described  in  ch.  xxv. 


I   CHRONICLES  23.  32—24.  4.     R  Ch       151 

continually  before  the  Lord  :  and  that  they  should  keep  32 
the  charge  of  the  tent  of  meeting,  and  the  charge  of  the 
holy  place,  and  the  charge  of  the  sons  of  Aaron  their 
brethren,  for  the  service  of  the  house  of  the  Lord. 

[Ch]  And  the  courses  of  the  sons  of  Aaron  were  these.  24 
The  sons  of  Aaron;   Nadab   and  Abihu,  Eleazar  and 
Ithamar.     But   Nadab   and    Abihu    died   before    their  2 
father,   and    had   no   children:    therefore   Eleazar  and 
Ithamar  executed  the  priest's  office.     And  David  with  3 
Zadok  of  the  sons  of  Eleazar^  and  Ahimelech  of  the  sons 
of  Ithamar,  divided  them  according  to  their  ordering  in 
their  service.     And  there  were  more  chief  men  found  of  4 
the  sons  of  Eleazar  than  of  the  sons  of  Ithamar;  and 
thus  were  they  divided :  of  the  sons  of  Eleazar  there 

32.  The  duties  of  the  Levites  are  finally  summarized  as  con- 
stituting a  threefold  charge — over  the  Tabernacle,  over  the  Temple, 
and  over  the  Aaronic  priesthood. 

xxiv.     The  Aaronic  Priests. 

Following  upon  the  enumeration  of  the  Levitical  houses,  which 
occupied  ch.  xxiii,  we  have  here  the  divisions  of  the  Aaronic 
priesthood.  The  Aaronites,  descended  from  Eleazar  and  Ithamar, 
were  divided  into  twentj'-four  classes,  performing  their  duties  in 
an  order  determined  by  lot.  The  duties  of  the  Kohathites  and 
Merarites  are  then  stated  in  some  detail.  The  Davidic  origin  of 
the  twenty-four  courses  of  the  priests  is  repudiated  by  certain 
modern  scholars  (e.  g.  de  Wette,  Herzfeld,  &c.),  but  it  is  testified 
to  by  Josephus  ;  and  their  pre-exilic  existence  is  borne  out  by 
Ezekiel  (cf.  viii.  16-18)  and  Nehemiah  (cf.  xii.  1-7,  12-21). 

xxiv.  1-19.      The  Tweniy-foiir  Courses  of  the  Priests. 

1.  The  chronicler  here  takes  up  anew  the  subject  of  the  Aaronic 
priesthood,  which  he  had  touched  upon  in  xxiii.  13. 

2.  Nadab  and  Abihu :  they  had  perished  for  their  sin  of  offering 
*  strange  fire.'     Cf.  Num.  iii.  4,  xxvi.  61. 

3.  The  ordering  of  the  priestly  courses  is  represented  as  the 
joint  work  of  the  king  and  the  priestly  heads  of  the  two  lines  of 
Eleazar  and  Ithamar,  Zadok  and  Abiathar. 

4.  The  descendants  of  Eleazar  constituted  sixteen  priestly 
households  or  clans  ;  those  of  Ithamar  composed  only  eight. 


152  I   CHRONICLES  24.  5-10.     Ch 

were  sixteen,  heads  of  fathers'  houses ;  and  of  the  sons  of 

5  Ithamar,  according  to  their  fathers'  houses,  eight.  Thus 
were  they  divided  by  lot,  one  sort  with  another ;  for  there 
were  princes  of  the  sanctuary,  and  princes  of  God,  both 

6  of  the  sons  of  Eleazar,  and  of  the  sons  of  Ithamar.  And 
Shemaiah  the  son  of  Nethanel  the  scribe,  who  was  of  the 
Levites,  wrote  them  in  the  presence  of  the  king,  and  the 
princes,  and  Zadok  the  priest,  and  Ahimelech  the  son  of 
Abiathar,  and  the  heads  of  the  fathers'  houses  of  the 
priests   and   of  the  Levites  :   one  fathers'  house  being 

7  taken  for  Eleazar,  and  one  taken  for  Ithamar.  Now  the 
first  lot  came  forth  to  Jehoiarib,  the  second  to  Jedaiah ; 

8, 9  the  third  to  Harim,  the  fourth  to  Seorim ;  the  fifth  to 
10  Malchijah,  the  sixth  to  Mijamin  ;  the  seventh  to  Hakkoz, 

5.  Ijy  lot:  the  use  of  the  lot  was  always  recognized  in  the 
Jewish  religious  community  as  a  divinely-appointed  method  of 
deciding  upon  doubtful  alternatives.  It  was  usually  performed  by 
means  of  coloured  stones,  one  giving  an  affirmative  and  the  other 
a  negative  response  to  the  questioner.  The  Urim  and  Thummin 
were  probably  of  the  nature  of  such  oracular  stones.  In  the  present 
case  the  names  of  the  priestly  households  would  probably  be 
written  upon  parchment  and  drawn  from  the  urn. 

princes  of  the  sanctuary:  the  chronicler  is  recording  the 
historic  fact  that  the  honours  of  the  priestly  dignity  had  been  enjoyed 
by  descendants  of  both  the  sons  of  Aaron,  and,  the  confusion 
having  so  long  existed  even  as  far  as  concerned  the  high-priest- 
hood, David  perpetuated  the  existing  state  of  things  in  the  case  of 
the  minor  priestly  offices.  Eventually  the  high-priesthood  was 
given  over  entirely  to  the  house  of  Eleazar. 

6.  The  verse  is  somewhat  obscure,  but  the  sense  seems  to  be 
that  Shemaiah-ben-Nethanel,  a  Levitic  scribe,  recorded  the  results 
of  the  lottery,  as  a  representative  was  selected  alternately  from 
the  house  of  Eleazar  and  of  Ithamar.  As  the  number  of  the  former 
was  double  that  of  the  latter  we  cannot  determine  in  what  way 
the  discrepancy  was  rectified. 

7-18.  The  twenty-four  courses  are  here  named  according  to 
the  Davidic  organization.  Many  of  the  names  are  entirely  void  of 
interest  to  us,  but  it  is  worth  noting  that  Zechariah,  father  of  John 
the  Baptist,  belonged  to  the  eighth  class  (cf.  Luke  i.  5).  Each 
course  performed  the  duties  of  the  office  for  a  week  in  rotation. 


I   CHRONICLES  24.  11-27.     Ch  R^  153 

the  eighth  to  Abijah;  the  ninth  to  Jeshua,  the  tenth  to  n 
Shecaniah ;  the  eleventh  to  EHashib,  the  twelfth  to  Jakim  ;  12 
the  thirteenth  to  Huppah,  the  fourteenth  to  Jeshebeab ;  13 
the  fifteenth   to  Bilgah,  the   sixteenth   to   Immer;   the  M) 
seventeenth  to  Hezir,  the  eighteenth  to  Happizzez;  the  16 
nineteenth  to  Pethahiah,  the  twentieth  to  Jehezkel;  the  17 
one  and  twentieth  to  Jachin,  the  two  and  twentieth  to 
Gamul ;  the  three  and  twentieth  to  Delaiah,  the  four  and  18 
twentieth  to  Maaziah.     This  was  the  ordering  of  them  in  19 
their  service,  to  come  into  the  house  of  the  Lord  accord- 
ing to  the  ordinance  given  unto  them  by  the  hand  of 
Aaron  their  father,  as  the  Lord,  the  God  of  Israel,  had 
commanded  him. 

[R^]  And  of  the  rest  of  the  sons  of  Levi :  of  the  sons  20 
of  Amram,  Shubael;  of  the  sons  of  Shubael,  Jehdeiah. 
Of  Rehabiah  :  of  the  sons  of  Rehabiah,  Isshiah  the  chief.  21 
Of  the  Izharites,  Shelomoth;  of  the  sons  of  Shelomoth,  22 
Jahath.  And  the  sons  of  Hebron  \  Jeriah  the  chief,  23 
Amariah  the  second,  Jahaziel  the  third,  Jekameam  the 
fourth.  The  sons  of  Uzziel,  Micah ;  of  the  sons  of  24 
Micah,  Shamir.  The  brother  of  Micah,  Isshiah  :  of  the  25 
sons  of  Isshiah,  Zechariah.  The  sons  of  Merari ;  Mahli  26 
and  Mushi:  the  sons  of  Jaaziah ;  Beno.  The  sons  of  ^I^ 
Merari ;  of  Jaaziah,  Beno,  and  Shoham,  and  Zaccur,  and 


20-31.  Organization  of  other  Levites.  The  section  clearly  refers 
only  to  the  Levites  who  were  occupied  with  the  public  worship  of 
the  Sanctuary,  for  the  singers  and  other  officials  are  enumerated  in 
ch.  xxvi.  The  catalogue  is  limited  to  the  families  of  the  lines  of 
Kohath  and  Merari.  The  chronicler  first  names  three  of  the 
Kohathite  chiefs,  Jehdeiah,  Isshiah,  and  Jahath,  representing  the 
houses  of  Amram,  Rehabiah,  and  Izhar  ;  and  then  follow  four 
Kohathite  chiefs  descended  from  Hebron  (verse  23),  although  the 
name  Hebron  is  omitted  both  in  the  Hebrew  and  in  the  LXX 
(but  cf.  xxiii.  19).  The  Merarite  chiefs  are  then  named.  And  the 
statement  is  added  that  these  Levites  were  organized  into  classes 


154  I   CHRONICLES  24.  28—25.  i.     R^  Ch 

38,  29  Ibri.     Of  Mahli ;  Eleazar,  who  had  no  sons.     Of  Kish ; 

30  the  sons  of  Kish,  Jerahmeel.  And  the  sons  of  Mushi ; 
Mahli,  and  Eder,  and  Jerimoth.     These  were  the  sons 

31  of  the  Levites  after  their  fathers'  houses.  These  hkewise 
cast  lots  even  as  their  brethren  the  sons  of  Aaron  in  the 
presence  of  David  the  king,  and  Zadok,  and  Ahimelech, 
and  the  heads  of  the  fathers'  houses  of  the  priests  and 
of  the  Levites ;  the  fathers'  houses  of  the  chief  even  as 
those  of  his  younger  brother. 

25  [Ch]  Moreover  David  and  the  captains  of  the  host 
separated  for  the  service  certain  of  the  sons  of  Asaph, 
and  of  Heman,  and  of  Jeduthun,  who  should  prophesy 
with  harps,  with  psalteries,  and  with  cymbals :  and  the 


for  service  in  the  same  way  as  were  the  priests.  Hence,  although 
only  fifteen  classes  are  actually  named,  it  is  highly  probable  that 
they  originally  fell  into  twenty-four  courses,  the  additional  nine 
houses  being  found  among  the  uncatalogued  descendants  of  the 
Hebronites  and  the  Mushites.  In  all  probability  a  later  scribe  has 
added  the  entire  section. 

XXV.     The  Temple  Musicians. 

As  with  the  leading  priests  and  with  their  assistants  of  ch.  xxiv, 
so  the  musicians  of  the  Temple  were  divided  into  twenty-four 
courses.  The  organization  of  the  service  of  praise  in  the  second 
Temple  was  most  elaborate  and  must  have  been  of  special  interest 
to  the  chronicler.  But  the  question  again  presents  itself  as  to 
whether  he  is  actually  recording  the  facts  of  the  Davidic  organiza- 
tion in  the  present  chapter  or  whether  he  describes  the  later 
developed  organization  which  sprung  from  David's  early  attempt 
to  order  the  music  of  the  Sanctuary.  In  the  issue  it  seems 
impossible  to  escape  the  conclusion  that  the  chronicler  is  seeking 
to  read  backward  from  his  own  day  to  that  of  David,  instead  of 
placing  himself  in  the  genuine  historic  attitude  of  reading  forward 
from  David's  day  to  his  own, 

1.  The  musical  guilds  contained  representatives  of  each  of  the 
great  Levitical  houses,  Asaph  being  a  Gcrshonite,  Heman  a 
Kohathite,  and  Jeduthun  a  Merarite. 

prophesy  with  harps  :  the  word  is  used  in  its  wider  sense  of 
voicing  inspired  thought  to  the  accompaniment  of  music.     Speak- 


I   CHRONICLES  25.  2-5.     Ch  R^  155 

number  of  them  that  did  the  work  according  to  their 
service  was :  of  the  sons  of  Asaph ;  Zaccur,  and  Joseph,  2 
and  Nethaniah,  and  Asharelah,  the  sons  of  Asaph ;  under 
the  hand  of  Asaph,  who  prophesied  after  the  order  of  the 
king.     Of  Jeduthun  :  the  sons  of  Jeduthun ;   Gedaliah,  3 
and  Zeri,  and  Jeshaiah,  Hashabiah,  and  Mattithiah,  six ; 
under  the  hands  of  their  father  Jeduthun  with  the  harp, 
who  prophesied  in  giving  thanks  and  praising  the  Lord. 
Of  Heman :  the  sons  of  Heman  ;  Bukkiah,  Mattaniahj  4 
Uzziel,  Shebuel,  and  Jerimoth,  [R^]  Hananiah,  Hanani, 
EHathah,    Giddalti,   and    Romamti-ezer,   Joshbekashah, 
Mallothi,  Hothir,  Mahazioth :  all  these  were  the  sons  of  5 

ing  under  the  influence  of  inspiration  seemed  closely  associated 
with  music  in  early  days,  as  we  see  from  the  case  of  EUsha,  &c. 

2.  the  sons  of  Asaph :  as  each  class  is  said  to  consist  of  twelve 
men  (cf.  verse  9  n.),  who  are  called  'sons'  of  the  leader,  it  is  clear 
that  family  relationship  is  not  indicated,  but  merely  membership  of 

'the  guild  in  question.  Also  a  comparison  of  verses  2-5  with 
verses  9-31  shows  that  these  'sons'  of  Asaph,  Jeduthun  and 
Heman,  mentioned  in  the  earlier  verses,  were  really  the  leaders  of 
the  musical  courses  and  that  the  later  verses  give  the  details  of 
the  subdivisions  of  the  guilds. 

3.  The  name  of  Shimei  has  fallen  out ;  cf.  verse  17, 

4.  Suspicions  regarding  the  genuineness  of  this  list  of  the 
names  of  the  fourteen  '  sons '  (i.  e.  guilds)  of  Heman  are  aroused 
by  the  fact  that  six  of  the  names,  read  consecutively  as  they  stand, 
form  a  complete  Hebrew  sentence.  These  names  are  '  Giddalti, 
and  Romamti-ezer,  Joshbekashah,  Mallothi,  Hothir.  Mahazioth,' 
which  literall}'  means  : — 

'  I  have  magnified  and  I  have  exalted  help  ; 
Sitting  in  trouble  I  have  spoken  oracles  in  abundance.' 

Now  this  sentence  is  either  an  obscure  and  ancient  prayer  which 
has  been  mistaken  for  a  list  of  names  by  the  compiler  (the  mistake 
being  shared  by  the  LXX  and  the  Syriac  translators),  or  else  the 
compiler  has  purposely  strung  together  these  significant  names  in 
such  an  order  as  to  form  a  sentence.  That  the  latter  case  is  what 
has  actually  occurred  is  far  more  probable .  than  that  an  obscure 
sentence  should  have  been  inserted  in  a  list  of  names. 

5.  This  verse  again  is  obscure.  Not  improbably  it  is  a  late 
insertion,  added  along  with  verse  4  by  a  redactor.     As  it  stands  it 


156  I   CHRONICLES  25.  6-14.     R^  Ch 

Heman  the  king's  seer  in  the  words  of  God,  to  hft  up  the 
horn.     And  God  gave  to  Heman  fourteen  sons  and  three 

6  daughters.  [Ch]  All  these  were  under  the  hands  of  their 
father  for  song  in  the  house  of  the  Lord,  with  cymbals, 
psalteries,  and  harps,  for  the  service  of  the  house  of  God ; 
Asaph,  Jeduthun,  and  Heman  being  under  the  order  of 

7  the  king.  And  the  number  of  them,  with  their  brethren 
that  were  instructed  in  singing  unto  the  Lord,  even  all 
that  were  skilful,  was  two  hundred  fourscore  and  eight. 

8  And  they  cast  lots  for  their  charges,  all  alike,  as  well  the 

9  small  as  the  great,  the  teacher  as  the  scholar.  Now  the 
first  lot  came  forth  for  Asaph  to  Joseph :  the  second  to 
Gedaliah ;  he  and  his  brethren  and  sons  were  twelve : 

10  the  third  to  Zaccur,  his  sons  and  his  brethren,  twelve : 
lithe  fourth  to  Izri,  his  sons  and  his  brethren,  twelve: 

12  the  fifth  to  Nethaniah,  his  sons  and  his  brethren,  twelve : 

13  the  sixth  to  Bukkiah,  his  sons  and  his  brethren,  twelve: 

14  the  seventh  to  Jesharelah,  his  sons  and  his  brethren, 

implies  that  Heman  was  both  musician  and  seer  and  that  God  had 
honoured  him  (Ufted  up  his  horn)  in  his  gifts  and  in  his  sons. 

6.  This  verse  stands  as  an  introduction  to  the  detailed  enumera- 
tion which  follows.  Under  the  king  there  came  the  three  chief 
musicians,  and  under  them  were  the  guilds, 

7.  the  number  of  them  .  .  .  was  two  hundred  fourscore  and 
eig'ht :  comparing  this  statement  with  xxiii.  5  wc  gather  that  of  the 
4,000  Levites  appointed  by  David  as  musicians  only  288  skilled  men 
were  selected  to  form  the  twenty-four  choirs.  The  others  would 
be  learners.  But  as  all  cast  lots  for  their  order  in  the  courses  (cf. 
verse  8),  it  appears  that  the  remainder  of  the  4,000  were  under  the 
charge  of  the  288,  by  whom  they  were  probably  trained  and  whom 
they  would  assist  when  duly  qualified. 

9-31.  As  a  result  of  the  casting  of  the  lots,  the  first,  third,  fifth, 
and  seventh  places  fell  to  Asaphites  ;  the  second,  fourth,  eighth, 
twelfth,  and  fourteenth  fell  to  Jeduthunites  ;  and  the  sixth,  ninth, 
eleventh,  thirteenth,  and  the  last  ten  places  fell  to  Hcmanites. 

9.  On  the  analogy  of  the  following  verses  we  should  certainly 
restore  the  words  '  he  and  his  sons  and  their  brethren,  twelve  '  at 
the  close  of  the  verse.     At  the  same  time  we  must  read  in  the  first 


I   CHRONICLES  25.  15-26.  i.     Ch  157 

twelve  :  the  eighth  to  Jeshaiah,  his  sons  and  his  brethren,  15 
twelve  :  the  ninth  to  Mattaniah,  his  sons  and  his  brethren,  16 
twelve :  the  tenth  to  Shimei,  his  sons  and  his  brethren,  17 
twelve :  the  eleventh  to  Azarel,  his  sons  and  his  brethren,  18 
twelve :  the  twelfth  to  Hashabiah,  his  sons  and  his  19 
brethren,  twelve :  for  the  thirteenth,  Shubael,  his  sons  20 
and  his  brethren,  twelve:  for  the  fourteenth,  Mattithiah,  21 
his  sons  and  his  brethren,  twelve:  for  the  fifteenth  to  22 
Jeremoth,  his  sons  and  his  brethren,  twelve :  for  the  six-  23 
teenth  to  Hananiah,  his  sons  and  his  brethren,  twelve: 
for  the  seventeenth  to  Joshbekashah,  his  sons  and  his  24 
brethren,  twelve :  for  the  eighteenth  to  Hanani,  his  sons  25 
and  his  brethren,  twelve :  for  the  nineteenth  to  Mallothi,  26 
his  sons  and  his  brethren,  twelve:  for  the  twentieth  to  27 
Eliathah,  his  sons  and  his  brethren,  twelve :  for  the  one  28 
and  twentieth  to  Hothir,  his  sons  and  his  brethren, 
twelve :  for  the  two  and  twentieth  to  Giddalti,  his  sons  29 
and  his  brethren,  twelve :  for  the  three  and  twentieth  to  30 
Mahazioth,  his  sons  and  his  brethren,  twelve:  for  the  31 
four  and  twentieth  to  Romamti-ezer,  his  sons  and  his 
brethren,  twelve. 

For  the  courses  of  the  doorkeepers  :  of  the  Korahites ;  26 

clause  of  the  verse,  '  to  Asaph  and  to  Joseph,'  which  is  required 
both  for  the  sake  of  symmetry  and  also  to  make  up  the  correct  num- 
ber of  288. 

xxvi.     Various  Temple  Officers. 

The  catalogues  of  Levitic  officers  are  brought  to  a  close  with 
lists  of  the  door-keepers,  treasury  officials,  and  minor  officers. 

xxvi.  I- 19.  The  Door-keepers.  There  is  difficulty  in  determining 
the  number  of  the  Temple  door-keepers.  In  this  passage  93  are 
enumerated,  of  the  descendants  of  Korah  and  Merari.  In  xxiii.  5 
it  is  stated  that  David  appointed  4,000  door-keepers  ;  whence  it 
seems  that  they  were  under  the  charge  of  the  93  here  named. 
But  in  ix.  22  it  is  stated  that  David  appointed  212  door-keepers, 
and  one  only  reaches  an  explanation  of  such  a  discrepancy  by  refer- 
ring the  appointments  to  different  periods. 


158  I   CHRONICLES  26.  2-14.     Ch 

Meshelemiah  the  son  of  Kore,  of  the  sons  of  Asaph. 

2  And  Meshelemiah  had  sons ;  Zechariah  the  firstborn, 
Jediael   the  second,  Zebadiah   the  third,   Jathniel  the 

3  fourth ;  Elam  the  fifth,  Jehohanan  the  sixth,  EHehoenai 

4  the  seventh.  And  Obed-edom  had  sons ;  Shemaiah  the 
firstborn,  Jehozabad   the   second,  Joah   the  third,  and 

5  Sacar  the  fourth,  and  Nethanel  the  fifth ;  Ammiel  the 
sixth,  Issachar  the  seventh,  Peullethai  the  eighth  :   for 

6  God  blessed  him.  Also  unto  Shemaiah  his  son  were 
sons  born,  that  ruled  over  the  house  of  their  father :  for 

7  they  were  mighty  men  of  valour.  The  sons  of  Shemaiah ; 
Othni,  and  Rephael,  and  Obed,  Elzabad,  whose  brethren 

8  were  vaHant  men,  Elihu,  and  Semachiah.  All  these  were 
of  the  sons  of  Obed-edom  :  they  and  their  sons  and  their 
brethren,  able  men  in  strength  for  the  service ;  threescore 

9  and  two  of  Obed-edom.     And  Meshelemiah  had  sons 

10  and  brethren,  valiant  men,  eighteen.  Also  Hosah,  of 
the  children  of  Merari,  had  sons ;  Shimri  the  chief,  (for 
though  he  was  not  the  firstborn,  yet  his  father  made  him 

11  chief;)  Hilkiah  the  second,  Tebaliah  the  third,  Zechariah 
the  fourth :  all  the  sons  and  brethren  of  Hosah  were 

1 2  thirteen.  Of  these  were  the  courses  of  the  doorkeepers, 
even  of  the  chief  men,  having  charges  like  as  their  breth- 

13  ran,  to  minister  in  the  house  of  the  Lord.  And  they 
cast  lots,  as  well  the  small  as  the  great,  according  to  their 

14  fathers'  houses,  for  every  gate.     And  the  lot  eastward  fell 

1.  of  the  sons  of  Asaph:  we  must  read  Ebiasaph,  as  in  ix.  19 
(cf.  LXX  (B),  which  reads  Abia  Saphar).    Asaph  was  a  Gershonite. 

4.  Obed-edom  (cf,  note  in  xiii.  13  and  xvi.  38)  :  he  is  here 
reckoned  as  a  member  of  the  Korahites.  His  eight  sons  and  six 
grandsons  are  specially  mentioned  as  men  of  strength  and  honour. 

12.  the  courses  of  the  doorkeepers  :  the  charge  of  the  Tem- 
ple gates,  which  faced  the  points  of  the  compass,  was  assigned  by 
lot  to  their  guardians ;  twenty-four  posts  had  to  be  provided  for 
(verse  13). 


I   CHRONICLES  26.  15-20.     Ch  159 

to  Shelemiah.     Then  for  Zechariah  his  son,  a  discreet 
counsellor,  they  cast  lots ;  and  his  lot  came  out  northward. 
To  Obed-edom  southward ;  and  to  his  sons  the  store-  15 
house.     To  Shuppim  and  Hosah  westward,  by  the  gate  »6 
of  Shallecheth,  at  the   causeway  that  goeth   up,  ward 
against  ward.     Eastward  were  six  Levites,  northward  four  17 
a  day,  southward  four  a  day,  and  for  the  storehouse  two 
and  two.     For  Parbar  westward,  four  at  the  causeway,  18 
and  two  at   Parbar.     These  were   the  courses   of  the  19 
doorkeepers ;  of  the  sons  of  the  Korahites,  and  of  the 
sons  of  Merari. 

And  of  the  Levites,  Ahijah  was  over  the  treasuries  20 

15.  the  storehouse  seems  to  have  stood  in  the  outer  court  of 
the  Temple  near  the  southern  entrance  and  to  have  been  used  for 
the  storage  of  the  Temple  goods. 

16.  To  Shuppim:  the  word  is  not  a  proper  name,  but  an 
unintelligible  intrusion  which  must  be  deleted.  It  probably  arose 
by  the  repetition  of  the  last  word  of  the  preceding  verse  (Heb. 
^Asuppim). 

the  gate  of  Shallecheth :  nothing  is  known  of  this  gate, 
which  is  here  said  to  have  been  situated  to  the  west  of  the 
Temple.  It  is  not  unlikely  that  the  word  is  a  scribal  error  for 
'  the  chambers '  (Heb.  Shdkoth). 

at  the  causeway :  this  was  evidently  the  path  leading  from 
the  lower  city  to  the  hill  on  which  the  Temple  stood. 

18.  Parbar :  the  word  is  a  crux  of  criticism.  Its  repetition  in 
this  one  verse  is  unaccountable.  The  versions  give  us  little  help. 
The  LXX  presents  a  simpler  text  and  evidently  did  not  know  the 
word.  The  Syriac  transliterates.  The  later  Latin  Vulgate  makes 
a  guess  and  writes  '  in  the  cells  of  the  janitors.*  Some  see  in 
the  word  a  connexion  with  the  Persian  word  *parwar,'  which 
means  '  a  balcony,'  or  '  an  open  gallery.*  Probably  it  indicates 
some  outbuilding  to  the  west  of  the  Temple. 

xxvi.  20-28.  Treasury  Officials. 

20.  of  the  Iievites,  Ahijah:  the  abruptness  of  this  opening 
clause,  coming  as  it  does  after  several  chapters  upon  Levitical 
organization,  and  introducing  Ahijah  without  mention  of  his 
family  connexion,  is  suspicious.  We  prefer  the  reading  of  the 
LXX  :  '  And  the  Levites,  their  brethren,  over  the  treasuries,'  &c., 
as   a   more    suitable    superscription;    and   the   error    is    readily 


i6o  I   CHRONICLES  26.  21-28.     Ch 

of  the  house  of  God,  and  over  the  treasuries  of  the 

21  dedicated  things.  The  sons  of  Ladan ;  the  sons  of 
the  Gershonites  belonging  to  Ladan,  the  heads  of  the 
fathers'    houses    belonging    to    Ladan    the    Gershonite; 

22  Jehieli.  The  sons  of  Jehieli ;  Zetham,  and  Joel  his 
brother,  over  the  treasuries  of  the  house  of  the  Lord. 

23  Of  the  Amramites,  of  the  Izharites,  of  the  Hebronites, 

24  of  the  Uzzielites  :  and  Shebuel  the  son  of  Gershora,  the 

25  son  of  Moses,  was  ruler  over  the  treasuries.  And  his 
brethren ;  of  Eliezer  came  Rehabiah  his  son,  and  Jeshaiah 
his  son,  and  Joram  his  son,  and  Zichri  his  son,  and  Shelo- 

26  moth  his  son.  This  Shelomoth  and  his  brethren  were 
over  all  the  treasuries  of  the  dedicated  things,  which 
David  the  king,  and  the  heads  of  the  fathers'  houses^  the 
captains  over  thousands  and  hundreds,  and  the  captains 

27  of  the  host,  had  dedicated.  Out  of  the  spoil  won  in 
battles  did  they  dedicate  to  repair  the  house  of  the  Lord. 

28  And  all  that  Samuel  the  seer,  and  Saul  the  son  of  Kish, 
and  Abner  the  son  of  Ner,  and  Joab  the  son  of  Zeruiah, 
had  dedicated;  whosoever  had  dedicated  any  thing, 
it  was  under  the  hand  of  Shelomoth,  and  of  his  brethren. 

accounted  for  by  the  resemblance  between  '  Ahijah '  and  '  their 
brethren '  (Heb.  ahehem). 

21,  22.  The  verses  are  obscure,  but  the  sense  is  clearly  that 
the  treasuries  of  Jehovah's  house  were  entrusted  to  Zetham  and 
Joel,  chiefs  of  the  house  of  Jehieli,  which  traced  its  descent  from 
Gershom  through  Ladan. 

23,  24.  The  meaning  is  that  from  among  the  four  branches  of 
the  family  of  Kohath,  Shebuel  was  selected  for  the  charge  of  the 
other  treasuries.  Shebuel  is  styled  'ruler  over  the  treasuries,' 
and  the  word  employed  (Heb.  ndgta)  implies  that  he  held  the 
place  of  chief  treasury-official,  superintending  the  Levites  who 
had  charge  of  the  two  treasuries.  This  fact  has  often  been  over- 
looked because  Shebuel's  office  is  described  between  those  of  the 
under-treasurers  instead  of  at  the  outset. 

25-28.  SlielomotlL  and  his  brethren:  they  were  related  to 
Shebuel  and  had  the  charge  of  all  consecrated  offerings,  and  also 


I 


I   CHRONICLES  26.  29—27.  i.     Ch         161 

Of  the  Izharites,  Chenaniah  and  his  sons  were  for  the  29 
outward  business  over  Israel,  for  officers  and  judges.     Of  30 
the   Hebronites,   Hashabiah  and  his  brethren,   men  of 
valour,  a  thousand  and  seven  hundred,  had  the  oversight 
of  Israel  beyond  Jordan  westward ;  for  all  the  business  of 
the  Lord,  and   for   the  service  of  the  king.     Of  the  31 
Hebronites  was  Jerijah  the  chief,  even  of  the  Hebronites, 
according  to  their  generations  by  fathers'  houses.     In  the 
fortieth  year  of  the  reign  of  David  they  were  sought  for, 
and  there  were  found  among  them  mighty  men  of  valour 
at  Jazer  of  Gilead.     And  his  brethren,  men  of  valour,  32 
were  two  thousand  and  seven  hundred,  heads  of  fathers' 
houses^    whom    king    David    made    overseers    over    the 
Reubenites,  and  the  Gadites,  and  the  half  tribe  of  the 
Manassites,  for  every  matter  pertaining  to  God,  and  for 
the  affairs  of  the  king. 

Now  the  children  of  Israel  after  their  number,  to  wit^  27 

of  the  spoils  of  war  accumulated  by  David,  Saul,  and  the  military 
chieftains,  for  Temple  use. 

xxvi.  29-32.  External  Officials.  In  the  enumeration  of  these 
officials,  who  performed  the  duties  of  scribes  andjjudges  throughout 
the  countrj^,  it  is  noticeable  that  they  represent  the  houses  of  the 
Kohathites  instead  of  being  drawn  from  all  the  families  of  Levi, 
and  that  their  number  only  amounts  to  4,400  instead  of  the  6,000 
mentioned  in  xxiii.  4.  It  is,  therefore,  evident  that  we  have  here 
an  imperfect  list.  It  is  also  somewhat  curious  that  2,700  should 
be  assigned  to  the  districts  east  of  Jordan,  and  only  1,700  to  the 
western  districts. 

29.  Chenaniah :  cf.  note  on  xv.  22. 

31.  This  verse  is  of  the  nature  of  a  parenthesis,  having  reference 
to  the  Levites  mentioned  in  verse  32, 

32.  heads  of  fathers'  houses:  the  words  must  be  understood 
of  individuals,  not  of  clans,  for  a  single  branch  of  the  family  of 
Hebron  could  not  possibly  contain  2,700  families,  nor  could  so 
many  families  be  required  for  the  two  and  a  half  tribes,  while  only 
1,700  individuals  were  required  for  the  ten  and  a  half  tribes, 

(3)  xxvii.    David'' s  Army  and  Adminisiration. 
The  chapter  falls  into  four  divisions,  and  describes  the  Organiza- 
M 


i62  I   CHRONICLES  27.  2-7.     Ch  Ch^ 

the  heads  of  fathers'  houses  and  the  captains  of  thousands 
and  of  hundreds,  and  their  officers  that  served  the  king, 
in  any  matter  of  the  courses  which  came  in  and  went 
out  month  by  month  throughout  all  the  months  of  the 
year,  of  every  course  were  twenty  and  four  thousand. 

2  [Ch^]  Over  the  first  course  for  the  first  month  was 
Jashobeam  the  son  of  Zabdiel :  and  in  his  course  were 

3  twenty  and  four  thousand.  He  was  of  the  children  of 
Perez,  the  chief  of  all  the  captains  of  the  host  for  the  first 

4  month.  And  over  the  course  of  the  second  month  was 
Dodai  the  Ahohite,  and  his  course ;  and  Mikloth  the 
ruler :  and  in  his  course  were  twenty  and  four  thousand. 

6  The  third  captain  of  the  host  for  the  third  month  was 
Benaiah,  the  son  of  Jehoiada  the  priest,  chief :  and  in  his 

6  course  were  twenty  and  four  thousand.  This  is  that 
Benaiah,  who  was  the  mighty  man  of  the  thirty,  and  over 
the  thirty :  and  of  his  course  was  Ammizabad  his  son. 

7  The  fourth  captain  for  the  fourth    month  was  Asahel 

tion  completed  by  David  to  render  his  kingdom  secure  and  stable. 
The  first  section  (verses  1-15)  refers  to  the  army  and  is  indebted 
to  2  Sam.  xxiv.  8  ff.  The  three  following  sections  treat  of  the 
civil  administration. 

xxvii.  1-15.  Military  Orgaitizaiion.  David  organized  his  army 
on  the  basis  of  successive  periods  of  service.  The  twelve  army 
corps  performed  military  service  for  a  month  in  rotation.  We 
may  probably  refer  the  scheme  to  the  period  of  the  unfortunate 
census. 

1.  The  verse  forms  a  somewhat  weighty  introduction,  but  its 
aim  is  to  indicate  that  the  organization  was  effected  with  reference 
to  the  number  of  men  capable  of  bearing  arms  throughout  the 
country. 

2,  3.  Jashobeam:  cf.  i  Chron.  xi.  ir;  he  commanded  the  first 
army  corps  of  24,000. 

5-15.  Benaiah:  cf,  i  Chron.  xi.  22,  Asahel:  cf  i  Chron. 
xi.  26  ;  he  was  slain  some  years  before  the  organization  of  the 
army  here  narrated,  which  fact  accounts  for  the  reference  to 
Zebadiah  ;  but  his  name  continued  to  be  used  in  the  army  either 


I   CHRONICLES  27.  8-18.     Ch^  Ch  163 

the  brother  of  Joab,  and  Zebadiah  his  son  after  him  : 
and  in  his  course  were  twenty  and  four  thousand.     The  8 
fifth   captain   for   the   fifth   month   was   Shamhuth    the 
Izrahite  :  and  in  his  course  were  twenty  and  four  thousand. 
The  sixth  captaiii  for  the  sixth  month  was  Ira  the  son  of  9 
Ikkesh  the  Tekoite :  and  in  his  course  were  twenty  and 
four   thousand.     The  seventh  captain   for  the   seventh  10 
month    was    Helez   the    Pelonite,    of  the    children    of 
Ephraim :    and    in    his    course   were   twenty   and   four 
thousand.     The  eighth  captain  for  the  eighth  month  was  11 
Sibbecai  the  Hushathite,  of  the  Zerahites :  and  in  his 
course  were   twenty   and   four   thousand.      The   ninth  12 
captain  for  the  ninth  month  was  Abiezer  the  Anathothite, 
of  the  Benjamites  :  and  in  his  course  were  twenty  and 
four  thousand.      The  tenth  captain  for  the  tenth  month  13 
was  Maharai  the  Netophathite,  of  the  Zerahites :  and  in 
his  course  were  twenty  and  four  thousand.     The  eleventh  14 
captain  for  the  eleventh  month  was  Benaiah  the  Pira- 
thonite,  of  the  children  of  Ephraim :  and  in  his  course 
were  twenty  and  four  thousand.     The  twelfth  captain  for  15 
the  twelfth  month  was  Heldai  the  Netophathite,  of  0th- 
niel :  and  in  his  course  were  twenty  and  four  thousand. 

[Ch]  Furthermore  over  the  tribes  of  Israel :  of  the  16 
Reubenites  was  Eliezer  the  son  of  Zichri  the  ruler  :  of 
the  Simeonites,  Shephatiah  the  son  of  Maacah  :  of  Levi,  17 
Hashabiah  the  son  of  Kemuel :  of  Aaron,   Zadok :  of  18 

honoris  causa,  or  because  a  successor  assumed  it.  Shamhuth : 
cf.  I  Chron.  xi.  27.  Ira:  cf.  i  Chron.  xi.  28.  Kelez :  of.  i  Chron. 
xi.  27.  Sibbecai:  cf.  i  Chron.  xi.  29.  Abiezer:  cf.  i  Chron,  xi.  28. 
Maharai:  cf.  i  Chron.  xi.  30.  Benaiah:  cf.  i  Chron.  xi.  31. 
Heldai :  cf.  i  Chron.  xi.  30. 

xxvii.  16-24.  Tribal  Governors.  David  appointed  rulers  over 
all  the  tribes  except  Gad  and  Asher,  for  the  omission  of  which  we 
are  unable  to  account. 

M    2 


i64  I   CHRONICLES  27.  19-25.     Ch 

Judah,  Elihu,  one  of  the  brethren  of  David  :  of  Issachar, 

19  Omri  the  son  of  Michael :  of  Zebulun,  Ishmaiah  the  son 

20  of  Obadiah  :  of  Naphtah,  Jeremoth  the  son  of  Azriel :  of 
the  children  of  Ephraim,  Hoshea  the  son  of  Azaziah  : 
of  the  half  tribe  of  Manasseh,  Joel  the  son  of  Pedaiah  : 

21  of  the  half /77^^  of  Manasseh  in  Gilead,  Iddo  the  son  of 

22  Zechariah :  of  Benjamin,  Jaasiel  the  son  of  Abner :  of 
Dan,    Azarel    the   son    of  Jeroham.      These   were   the 

23  captains  of  the  tribes  of  Israel.  But  David  took  not  the 
number  of  them  from  twenty  years  old  and  under : 
because  the  Lord  had  said  he  would  increase  Israel  like 

24  to  the  stars  of  heaven.  Joab  the  son  of  Zeruiah  began  to 
number,  but  finished  not ;  and  there  came  wrath  for  this 
upon  Israel;  neither  was  the  number  put  into  the 
account  in  the  chronicles  of  king  David. 

25  And  over  the  king's  treasuries  was  Azmaveth  the  son 

1*7.  Zadok:  the  high-priest  of  Eleazar's  line  had  command  of 
the  entire  priesthood. 

20,21.  Manasseh:  as  the  tribe  was  divided  territorially  it 
received  two  governors. 

23,  24.  The  verses  refer  back  to  the  military  organization  of 
verses  1-15.  They  imply  that  the  object  of  David's  census  had 
been  merely  to  ascertain  the  number  of  males  above  twenty  years 
of  age  capable  of  bearing  arms.  The  tragic  close  of  the  census  is 
mentioned  as  the  reason  why  no  numerical  details  can  be  given  by 
the  chronicler. 

xxvii.  25-31.  The  Royal  Domains.  The  royal  domains  and 
treasures  seem  to  have  been  very  considerable.  The  treasures, 
under  the  care  of  Azmaveth  and  Jonathan,  were  stored  in  the 
capital  and  at  various  places  in  the  provinces.  The  numerous 
flocks  and  herds,  and  the  considerable  extent  of  cultivated  land, 
were  put  into  the  hands  often  skilled  agriculturists  and  herdsmen 
who  were  of  both  Hebrew  and  alien  extraction. 

25.  Azmaveth  :  the  name  should  probably  be  read  with  different 
vowels  as  Azmoth.  He  was  entrusted  with  the  private  possessions 
of  the  king  which  were  in  the  royal  palace.  This  is  evident  from 
the  fact  that  all  the  other  possessions  are  definitely  located  beyond 
the  capital. 


I  CHRONICLES  27.  26-33.     Ch  165 

of  Adiel :    and  over  the  treasuries  in  the  fields,  in  the 
cities,  and  in  the  villages,  and  in  the  castles,  was  Jonathan 
the  son  of  Uzziah  :  and  over  them  that  did  the  work  of  26 
the  field   for   tillage  of  the  ground  was  Ezri  the  son 
of  Chelub :    and   over   the   vineyards   was    Shimei   the  27 
Ramathite :  and  over  the  increase  of  the  vineyards  for 
the  wine  cellars  was  Zabdi  the  Shiphmite :  and  over  the  28 
olive  trees  and  the   sycomore  trees   that    were  in    the 
lowland   was    Baal-hanan   the  Gederite :    and  over  the 
cellars  of  oil  was  Joash :  and  over  the  herds  that  fed  29 
in  Sharon  was  Shitrai  the  Sharonite  :  and  over  the  herds 
that  were  in  the  valleys  was  Shaphat  the  son  of  Adlai : 
and  over  the  camels  was  Obil  the  Ishmaelite :  and  over  30 
the  asses  was  Jehdeiah  the  Meronothite :  and  over  the  31 
flocks  was  Jaziz  the  Hagrite.     All  these  were  the  rulers 
of  the  substance  which  was  king  David's. 

Also  Jonathan  David's  uncle  was  a  counsellor,  a  man  32 
of  understanding,  and  a  scribe :  and  Jehiel  the  son  of 
Hachmoni  was  with  the  king's  sons  :  and  Ahithophel  was  33 


28.  in  the  lowland:  literally  'in  the  Shephelah,'  i.e.  in  the 
low,  undulating  hill-country  of  Judah  bordering  on  the  maritime 
plain. 

29.  in  Sharon  :  i.  e.  the  fertile  and  luxuriant  plain  bordering 
the  Mediterranean  between  Mount  Carmel  and  the  Philistine 
lowlands. 

xxvii.  32-34.  David's  Privy  Council.  King  David  was  sur- 
rounded by  a  number  of  trusted  councillors,  most  of  whom  have 
alread^^  been  named  among  his  heroes. 

32.  Jonathan:  this  may  have  been  David's  nephew  (cf.  i  Chron. 
XX.  7%  as  the  word  translated  'uncle'  {JiiGh.  dod)  is  used  very 
looseli''  to  signify  a  near  relative. 

Jehiel   was    in   charge  of  the  young  princes    of  the    royal 
household. 

33.  Ahithophel:  the  councillor  who  subsequently  deserted 
David  during  Absalom's  rebellion  and  then  took  his  own  life  ; 
cf.  2  Sam.  XV.  31,  xvi.  23 — xvii.  23. 


i66  I    CHRONICLES  27.  34—28.  i.     Ch 

the  king's  counsellor :  and  Hushai  the  Archite  was  the 
34  king's  friend  :  and  after  Ahithophel  was  Jehoiada  the  son 
of  Benaiah,  and  Abiathar  :  and  the  captain  of  the  king's 
host  was  Joab. 
28  And  David  assembled  all  the  princes  of  Israel,  the 
princes  of  the  tribes,  and  the  captains  of  the  companies 
that  served  the  king  by  course,  and  the  captains  of  thou- 
sands, and  the  captains  of  hundreds,  and  the  rulers  over 
all  the  substance  and  possessions  of  the  king  and  of  his 
sons,  with  the  officers,  and  the  mighty  men,  even  all  the 

Hushai  :  the  councillor  who  remained  loyal  to  the  king  and 
frustrated  the  advice  of  Ahithophel  ;  cf.  2  Sam.  xv.  37,  xvi.  16,  xvii. 
34.  after  Ahithophel :  probably  the  word  means  '  as  his 
successor.' 

Jehoiada :  son  of  the  hero  Benaiah,  and  evidently  named 
after  his  grandfather ;  cf.  i  Chron.  xviii.  17. 

Abiathar:  presumably  the  high-priest ;  cf.  i  Chron.  xv.  11. 

(4)  xxviii-xxix.     David's  last  Ads  and  Death. 

The  chronicler  here  takes  up  the  threads  of  the  narrative  which 
have  been  dropped  since  ch.  xxii.  The  long  reign  of  David  is 
crowned  by  a  fitting  close.  It  had  been  his  lot,  under  a  constant 
sense  of  his  dependence  upon  Jehovah,  to  establish  his  kingdom 
politically,  materially,  and  ecclesiastically.  As  the  end  approached 
he  determined  to  make  all  arrangements  for  the  succession. 
Summoning  the  officials  and  the  national  representatives  to  Jeru- 
salem, he  solemnly  designated  Solomon  as  his  successor.  After 
exhorting  his  son  in  words  of  genuine  piety,  he  entrusted  to  him 
the  plans  for  the  Temple  he  was  to  build.  In  conclusion  he 
bequeathed  all  his  personal  treasure  to  the  fulfilment  of  the  dream 
of  his  latter  days — the  erection  of  the  Temple.  In  response  to  the 
king's  appeal,  the  princes  of  the  people  add  their  offerings  to  those 
of  the  king.  Prayer  is  then  offered  by  the  aged  monarch,  numerous 
sacrifices  are  offered  to  Jehovah,  and  Solomon  is  again  anointed 
as  the  king-elect. 

xxviii.  i-io.     David pnhlicly  settles  the  Succession. 

1.  The  assembly  convened  by   David  was  thoroughly  repre- 
sentative and  included  many  of  the  officials  named  in  the  preceding 
chapters- 
officers  :  i.  e.  the  court  chamberlains. 


I   CHRONICLES  28.  3-7.     Ch  167 

mighty  men  of  valour,  unto  Jerusalem.     Then  David  the  2 
king  stood  up  upon  his  feet,  and  said,  Hear  me,  my 
brethren,  and  my  people  :  as  for  me,  it  was  in  mine  heart 
to  build  an  house  of  rest  for  the  ark  of  the  covenant  of 
the  Lord,  and  for  the  footstool  of  our  God ;  and  I  had 
made  ready  for  the  building.     But  God  said  unto  me,  3 
Thou  shalt  not  build  an  house  for  my  name,  because  thou 
art  a  man  of  war,  and  hast  shed  blood.     Howbeit  the  4 
Lord,  the  God  of  Israel,  chose  me  out  of  all  the  house  of 
my  father  to  be  king  over  Israel  for  ever  :  for  he  hath 
chosen  Judah  to  be  prince ;  and  in  the  house  of  Judah, 
the  house  of  my  father  ;  and  among  the  sons  of  my  father 
he  took  pleasure  in  me  to  make  me  king  over  all  Israel : 
and  of  all  my  sons,  (for  the  Lord  hath  given  me  many  5 
sons,)  he  hath  chosen  Solomon  my  son  to  sit  upon  the 
throne  of  the  kingdom  of  the  Lord  over  Israel.     And  he  6 
said  unto  me,  Solomon  thy  son,  he  shall  build  my  house 
and  my  courts  :  for  I  have  chosen  him  to  be  my  son,  and 
I  will  be  his  father.     And  I  will  estabhsh  his  kingdom  7 
for  ever,  if  he  be  constant  to  do  my  commandments  and 

2.  David  .  .  .  stood  up  :  probably  he  had  hitherto  sat  or  reclined 
owing  to  the  weakness  due  to  his  advanced  years.  The  speech 
here  given  recapitulates  what  we  already  know.  It  is  pregnant 
with  deep  religious  feeling. 

the  ark  of  tlie  covenant  of  the  LORD  :  this  is  the  full  designa- 
tion of  the  later  Deuteronomists. 

the  footstool  of  our  G-od:    i.e.  the  lid  or  covering  of  the 
Ark  upon  which  were  enthroned  the  cherubim. 

4,  5.  David  recognizes  an  unmistakable  choice  of  God,  firstly 
in  his  own  selection  to  the  throne  as  a  representative  of  Judah, 
and  secondly  in  the  appointment  of  Solomon  to  be  his  successor. 
The  theocratic  character  of  the  monarchy  is  clearly  stated  in  the 
phrase  with  which  David  describes  it — '  the  throne  of  the  kingdom 
of  the  Lord.' 

6,  7.  The  divine  promise  and  the  condition  of  obedience  upon 
which  it  depended  are  recorded  in  xvii.  ii  and  xxii.  lo,  as  well  as 
in  I  Kings  iii.  14,  ix.  4. 


i68  I   CHRONICLES  28.  8-12.     Ch 

8  judgements,  as  at  this  day.  Now  therefore,  in  the  sight 
of  all  Israel,  the  congregation  of  the  Lord,  and  in  the 
audience  of  our  God,  observe  and  seek  out  all  the  com- 
mandments of  the  Lord  your  God  :  that  ye  may  possess 
this  good  land,  and  leave  it  for  an  inheritance  to  your 

9  children  after  you  for  ever.  And  thou,  Solomon  my  son, 
know  thou  the  God  of  thy  father,  and  serve  him  with  a 
perfect  heart  and  with  a  wiUing  mind  :  for  the  Lord 
searcheth  all  hearts,  and  understandeth  all  the  imagina- 
tions of  the  thoughts  :  if  thou  seek  him,  he  will  be  found 
of  thee ;  but  if  thou  forsake  him,  he  will  cast  thee  off  for 

10  ever.  Take  heed  now;  for  the  Lord  hath  chosen  thee 
to  build  an  house  for  the  sanctuary  :  be  strong,  and  do  it. 

11  Then  David  gave  to  Solomon  his  son  the  pattern  of 
the  porch  of  the  temple^  and  of  the  houses  thereof,  and  of 
the  treasuries  thereof,  and  of  the  upper  rooms  thereof, 
and  of  the  inner  chambers  thereof,  and  of  the  place  of 

12  the  mercy-seat :  and  the  pattern  of  all  that  he  had  by  the 
spirit,  for  the  courts  of  the  house  of  the  Lord,  and  for  all 

7.  as  at  this  day :  i.  e.  according  to  the  religious  knowledge 
and  practice  then  prevalent. 

8.  in  the  audience  of  our  God:  David  appeals  to  God  as 
witnessing  the  ceremony  in  progress  before  the  assembled 
representatives  of  Israel. 

9.  David  forcibly  reminds  Solomon  of  the  omniscience  of 
Jehovah  and  of  the  fact  that  the  divine  promises  and  blessings 
are  invariably  conditioned  by  obedience, 

10.  he  strong-,  and  do  it :  the  charge  to  Solomon  closes  with 
words  of  cheer  and  exhortation. 

xxviii.  11-19.  The  Temple  Plans.  David  had  already  matured 
the  plans  for  the  Temple,  both  as  regards  its  architecture  and  its 
furniture.     These  he  now  solemnly  delivers  to  Solomon. 

12.  hy  the  spirit:  i.  e.  by  the  Spirit  of  God.  Skill  in  handi- 
craft was  considered  to  be  the  gift  of  God ;  cf.  Exod.  xxxv.  31  ; 
and,  similarly,  the  wisdom  which  enabled  David  to  draw  up  the 
plans  for  the  Temple  is  recognized  as  the  outcome  of  the  guidance 
of  God. 


I   CHRONICLES  28.  13-19.     Ch  169 

the  chambers  round  about,  for  the  treasuries  of  the  house 
of  God,  and  for  the  treasuries  of  the  dedicated  things  : 
also  for  the  courses  of  the  priests  and  the  Levites,  and  for  13 
all  the  work  of  the  service  of  the  house  of  the  Lord,  and 
for  all  the  vessels  of  service  in  the  house  of  the  Lord  :  of  14 
gold  by  weight  for  the  vessels  ^gold,  for  all  vessels  of 
every  kind  of  service  \  of  silver  for  all  the  vessels  of  silver 
by  weight,  for  all  vessels  of  every  kind  of  service  :  by  15 
weight  also  for  the  candlesticks  of  gold,  and  for  the  lamps 
thereof,  of  gold,  by  weight  for  every  candlestick  and  for 
the  lamps  thereof:  and  for  the  candlesticks  of  silver,  silver 
by  weight  for  every  candlestick  and  for  the  lamps  thereof, 
according  to  the  use  of  every  candlestick :  and  the  gold  i<> 
by  weight  for  the  tables  of  shewbread,  for  every  table ; 
and  silver  for  the  tables  of  silver:  and  the  fleshhooks,  17 
and  the  basons,  and  the  cups,  of  pure  gold  :  and  for  the 
golden  bowls  by  weight  for  every  bowl ;  and  for  the  silver 
bowls  by  weight  for  every  bowl  :  and  for  the  altar  of  18 
incense  refined  gold  by  weight :  and  gold  for  the  pattern 
of  the  chariot,  even  the  cherubim,  that  spread  out  their 
wings^  and  covered  the  ark  of  the  covenant  of  the  Lord. 
All  this,  said  David,  have  I  been  made  to  understand  in  19 
writing  from  the  hand  of  the  Lord,  even  all  the  works  of 


13.  for  the  courses  of  tlie  priests  and  the  Levites :    due 

provision  was  made  within  the  precincts  of  the  Temple  enclosure, 
i.  e.  rooms  were  provided  for  their  lodging  and  their  official 
duties. 

18.  the  chariot,  even  the  chertibim :  the  two  words  are  in 
apposition  in  that  the  cherubim  were  not  placed  beneath  the 
chariot  as  were  the  wheels  in  Ezekiel's  theophany,  but  constituted 
the  chariot  where  God's  glory  appeared.  The  word  '  cherub '  is 
of  disputed  etymology,  but  it  denotes  a  winged  figure  of  human 
shape  and  of  the  higher  order  of  angels. 

19.  The  narrative  is  again  in  the  first  person  and  the  speaker 
is  evidently  David.     The  king  declares  that  the  plans  were  not  of 


170  I   CHRONICLES  28.  20— 29.  2.     Ch 

20  this  pattern.  And  David  said  to  Solomon  his  son,  Be 
strong  and  of  good  courage,  and  do  it :  fear  not,  nor  be 
dismayed  :  for  the  Lord  God,  even  my  God,  is  with  thee  ; 
he  will  not  fail  thee,  nor  forsake  thee,  until  all  the  work 
for  the  service  of  the  house  of  the  Lord  be  finished. 

21  And,  behold,  there  are  the  courses  of  the  priests  and  the 
Levites,  for  all  the  service  of  the  house  of  God :  and 
there  shall  be  with  thee  in  all  manner  of  work  every  will- 
ing man  that  hath  skill,  for  any  manner  of  service  :  also 
the  captains  and  all  the  people  will  be  wholly  at  thy 
commandment. 

29  And  David  the  king  said  unto  all  the  congregation, 
Solomon  my  son,  whom  alone  God  hath  chosen,  is  yet 
young  and  tender,  and  the  work  is  great :  for  the  palace 
2  is  not  for  man,  but  for  the  Lord  God.  Now  I  have 
prepared  with  all  my  might  for  the  house  of  my  God 
the  gold  for  the  things  of  gold,  and  the  silver  for  the 
thifigs  of  silver,  and  the  brass  for  the  thhigs  of  brass,  the 
iron  for  the  things  of  iron,  and  wood  for  the  things  of 


his  own  invention,  but  had  been  produced  through  the  influence  of 
Jehovah  upon  him. 

20,  21.  David  concludes  his  charge  to  Solomon  with  words 
full  of  encouragement.  He  reminds  him  that  the  God  whom  he 
had  found  in  his  own  personal  experience  (cf.  *  even  my  God ')  to 
be  all-sufficient  was  with  him,  and  that  he  could  count  upon  the 
willing  co-operation  of  all  classes  of  the  Hebrew  community. 

xxix.  1-9.  Donations  to  the  Temple  Treasures.  David  follows  his 
exhortation  to  Solomon  by  addressing  the  assembled  princes 
concerning  his  personal  preparations  and  bounty  towards  the 
future  Temple ;  he  exhorts  them  to  freely  consecrate  their 
substance  to  the  work,  and  his  appeal  is  met  by  an  immediate 
response. 

1.  the  palace:  Jehovah  was  recognized  as  the  King  of  Israel 
in  this  magnificent  housing  of  the  Ark  of  the  Covenant. 

2.  with  all  my  might:  David's  preparations  for  the  Temple 
were  enthusiastic  and  ceaseless. 


I   CHRONICLES  29.  3-7.     Ch  171 

wood  ;  onyx  stones,  and  sto7tes  to  be  set,  stones  for  inlaid 
work,  and  of  divers  colours,  and  all  manner  of  precious 
stones,  and  marble  stones  in  abundance.     Moreover  also,  3 
because  I  have  set  my  affection  to  the  house  of  my  God, 
seeing  that  I  have  a  treasure  of  mine  own  of  gold  and 
silver,  I  give  it  unto  the  house  of  my  God,  over  and  above 
all  that  I  have  prepared  for  the  holy  house  j  even  three  4 
thousand  talents  of  gold,  of  the  gold  of  Ophir,  and  seven 
thousand  talents  of  refined  silver,  to  overlay  the  walls  of 
the  houses  withal  :  of  gold  for  the  things  of  gold,  and  of  5 
silver  for  the  thmgs  of  silver,  and  for  all  manner  of  work  to 
be  made  by  the  hands  of  artificers.     Who  then  offereth  will- 
ingly to  consecrate  himself  this  day  unto  the  Lord? 
Then  the  princes  of  the  fathers'  houses^  and  the  princes  of  6 
the  tribes  of  Israel,  and  the  captains  of  thousands  and  of 
hundreds,  with  the  rulers  over  the  king's  work,  offered 
willingly ;  and  they  gave  for  the  service  of  the  house  of  7 
God  of  gold  five  thousand  talents  and  ten  thousand  darics, 

onyx  stones :  i.  e.  the  green  beryl,  of  the  colour  of  leek. 
marble  stones  :  i.  e.  white  marble. 

3.  David  declares  that  he  will  contribute  largely  from  his 
private  treasures  in  addition  to  his  official  supply  of  material. 

4.  The  royal  donations  were  most  lavish.  The  gold  seems  to 
have  reached  the  almost  fabulous  value  of  ;!{^i 3, 000,000,  and  the 
silver  probably  about  ;£2,5oo,ooo.  Such  sums  appear  incredibly 
large,  and  should  be  read  in  the  light  of  the  chronicler's  tendency 
to  habitually  exaggerate  when  giving  numerical  details. 

5.  to  consecrate  himself :  lit. 'to  fill  his  hand  to-day  to  Jehovah.' 
"7.  The  offering  of  gold  made  by  the  princes  and  captains  is 

reckoned   at  a  sum  which  must  have  equalled  twenty-two  and 
a  half  millions  sterling  (in  talents). 

and  ten  thousand  darics  :  the  phrase  may  be  a  late  insertion 
in  the  text  from  a  marginal  valuation  of  the  contributions  of  gold, 
in  which  case  they  would  prove  that  the  lighter  system  of  weights 
was  employed  ;  or,  on  the  other  hand,  they  may  refer  to  additional 
gifts  in  coin.  But  in  any  case  the  gifts  could  not  have  been 
actually  made  in  darics,  for  the  daric  was  a  Persian  coin,  unknown 
in  David's  day,  valued  at  {\   25.  td.     The  use  of  the  word  is 


172  I   CHRONICLES  29.  8-15.     Ch 

and  of  silver  ten  thousand  talents,  and  of  brass  eighteen 
thousand  talents,  and  of  iron  a  hundred  thousand  talents, 

8  And  they  with  whom  precious  stones  were  found  gave 
them  to  the  treasure  of  the  house  of  the  Lord,  under  the 

9  hand  of  Jehiel  the  Gershonite.  Then  the  people  rejoiced, 
for  that  they  offered  willingly,  because  with  a  perfect 
heart  they  offered  willingly  to  the  Lord  :  and  David  the 

10  king  also  rejoiced  with  great  joy.  Wherefore  David 
blessed  the  Lord  before  all  the  congregation  :  and  David 
said,  Blessed  be  thou,  O  Lord,  the  God  of  Israel  our 

11  father,  for  ever  and  ever.  Thine,  O  Lord,  is  the 
greatness,  and  the  power,  and  the  glory,  and  the  victory, 
and  the  majesty  :  for  all  that  is  in  the  heaven  and  in  the 
earth  is  thine ,  thine  is  the  kingdom,  O  Lord,  and  thou 

12  art  exalted  as  head  above  all.  Both  riches  and  honour 
come  of  thee,  and  thou  rulest  over  all ;  and  in  thine  hand 
is  power  and  might;  and  in  thine  hand  it  is  to  make 

13  great,  and  to  give  strength  unto  all.     Now  therefore,  our 

14  God,  we  thank  thee,  and  praise  thy  glorious  name.  But 
who  am  I,  and  what  is  my  people,  that  we  should  be  able 
to  offer  so  willingly  after  this  sort  ?  for  all  things  come  of 

15  thee,  and  of  thine  own  have  we  given  thee.  For  we  are 
strangers  before  thee,  and  sojourners,  as  all  our  fathers 

usually  regarded  as  one  of  the  many  proofs  that  the  chronicler 
wrote  after  the  Persian  period. 

8.  Jehiel:  cf.  i  Chron.  xxvi.  21  ff. 

xxix.  10-19.  DavicVs  Thanksgiving.  David  closes  the  repre- 
sentative assembly  with  a  prayer  which  voices  his  thankfulness  at 
the  assured  success  of  his  plans  for  the  national  Temple.  His  joy 
is  unbounded  at  the  realization  of  the  deepest  desire  of  his  heart, 
and  the  most  spiritual  of  all  his  ambitions  for  his  people. 

10-12.  The  goodness  and  power  of  Jehovah  are  extolled  by  the 
aged  king,  who  freely  acknowledges  Him  as  the  King  omnipotent. 

13.  we  thank  thee :  the  participle  is  used  in  the  Hebrew  as 
expressing  the  continuance  of  an  enduring  praise. 

15.  The  verse  is  an  echo  of  Psalms  xxxix.  13  and  xc.  9. 


I   CHRONICLES  29.  16-21.     Ch  173 

were  :  our  days  on  the  earth  are  as  a  shadow,  and  there  is 
no  abiding.     O  Lord  our  God,  all  this  store  that  we  have  16 
prepared  to  build  thee  an  house  for  thine  holy  name 
Cometh  of  thine  hand,  and  is  all  thine  own.     I  know  also,  17 
my  God,  that  thou  triest  the  heart,  and  hast  pleasure  in 
uprightness.     As  for  me,  in  the  uprightness  of  mine  heart 
I  have  willingly  offered  all  these  things :  and  now  have  I 
seen  with  joy  thy  people,  which  are  present  here,  to  offer 
willingly  unto  thee.     O  Lord,  the  God  of  Abraham,  of  18 
Isaac,  and  of  Israel,  our  fathers,  keep  this  for  ever  in  the 
imagination  of  the  thoughts  of  the  heart  of  thy  people,  and 
prepare  their  heart  unto  thee  :  and  give  unto  Solomon  19 
my  son  a  perfect  heart,  to  keep  thy  commandments,  thy 
testimonies,  and  thy  statutes,  and  to  do  all  these  things,  and 
to  build  the  palace,  for  the  which  I  have  made  provision. 
And  David  said  to  all  the  congregation.  Now  bless  the  20 
Lord  your  God.     And  all  the  congregation  blessed  the 
Lord,  the  God  of  their  fathers,  and  bowed  down  their 
heads,  and  worshipped  the  Lord,  and  the  king.     And  21 

16.  God  is  recognized  as  the  Giver  of  all,  and  David  admits 
that  he  is  but  the  steward  of  all  his  material  possessions. 

17.  In  the  sight  of  God  the  king  can  testify  to  the  single-hearted- 
ness of  himself  and  his  people  in  the  offering  of  their  substance  for 
the  glory  of  Jehovah. 

18.  prepare  their  heart  unto  thee  :  i.  e.  guide  them  ever  into 
such  an  attitude  tovs^ards  Thyself. 

xxix.  20-22.  The  Public  Ceremony.  At  David's  bidding  the 
assembly  engaged  in  the  worship  of  God.  On  the  following  day 
a  great  religious  festival  is  held.  At  its  close  the  assembled 
princes  anoint  Solomon  as  king  and  reconsecrate  Zadok  as  high- 
priest. 

20.  worshipped  the  IiOBD,  and  the  king-:  the  chronicler 
certainly  does  not  imply  that  adoration  was  addressed  to  David. 
There  was  no  trace  of  idolatry  in  the  later  Judaism  which  he 
everywhere  reflects.  Deep  homage  was  paid  to  the  aged  king, 
but  it  was  as  far  removed  as  possible  from  the  adoration  rendered 
to  the  Roman  emperors  of  a  later  period. 


174  I  CHRONICLES   29.  22-28.     Ch 

they  sacrificed  sacrifices  unto  the  Lord,  and  offered 
burnt  offerings  unto  the  Lord,  on  the  morrow  after  that 
day,  even  a  thousand  bullocks,  a  thousand  rams,  and  a 
thousand  lambs,  with  their  drink  offerings,  and  sacrifices 

22  in  abundance  for  all  Israel ;  and  did  eat  and  drink  before 
the  Lord  on  that  day  with  great  gladness.  And  they 
made  Solomon  the  son  of  David  king  the  second  time, 
and  anointed  him  unto  the  Lord  to  be  prince,  and  Zadok 

23  to  be  priest.  Then  Solomon  sat  on  the  throne  of  the 
Lord  as  king  instead  of  David  his  father,  and  prospered ; 

24  and  all  Israel  obeyed  him.  And  all  the  princes,  and  the 
mighty  men,  and  all  the  sons  likewise  of  king  David, 

25  submitted  themselves  unto  Solomon  the  king.  And  the 
Lord  magnified  Solomon  exceedingly  in  the  sight  of  all 
Israel,  and  bestowed  upon  him  such  royal  majesty  as  had 
not  been  on  any  king  before  him  in  Israel. 

26  Now  David  the  son  of  Jesse  reigned  over  all  Israel. 

27  And  the  time  that  he  reigned  over  Israel  was  forty  years ; 
seven  years  reigned  he  in  Hebron,  and  thirty  and  three 

a8  rears  reigned  he  in  Jerusalem.  And  he  died  in  a  good 
old  age,  full  of  days,  riches,  and  honour :  and  Solomon 


22.  the  second  time :  for  the  first  consecration  of  Solomon 
cf.  I  Chron.  xxxiii.  i  ;  i  Kings  i.  328". 

Zadok  :  it  is  interesting  to  note  the  part  which  the  popular 
representatives  played,  not  only  in  regard  to  the  royal  succession, 
but  also  in  their  sanctioA  of  the  high-priesthood. 

xxix.  23-30.   Solomori's  Succession. 

23.  on  the  throne  of  the  XiOKD :  a  phrase  by  which  the 
chronicler  expresses  the  sanctity  of  the  Davidic  monarchy. 

25.  the  IiORD  mag'nified  Solomon  :  the  historian  views  the 
reign  of  David  as  closing  with  a  gorgeous  sunset,  while  that  of 
Solomon  opens  with  a  brilliant  sunrise. 

2*7.  in  Hebron :  this  is  one  of  the  few  references  of  the 
chronicler  to  the  early  reign  of  David  ;  the  seven  years  in  Hebron 
are  passed  over  in  silence. 


I    CHRONICLES  29.  29,  30.     Ch  175 

his  son  reigned  in  his  stead.     Now  the  acts  of  David  the  29 
king,  first  and  last,  behold,  they  are  written  in  the  history 
of  Samuel  the  seer,  and  in  the  history  of  Nathan  the 
prophet,  and  in  the  history  of  Gad  the  seer ;  with  all  his  30 
reign  and  his  might,  and  the  times  that  went  over  him, 
and  over  Israel,  and  over  all  the  kingdoms  of  the  countries. 

29.  The  chronicler  closes  his  account  of  the  reign  of  David 
with  a  reference  to  his  sources  of  information.  For  a  discussion 
of  the  subject,  see  Introd,  §  iv. 

over  all  the  king-doms :   refers  to  the  neighbouring  states 
with  which  David  came  in  contact. 


THE  SECOND   BOOK 

OF 

THE    CHRONICLES 

[Ch]  And  Solomon  the  son  of  David  was  strengthened 

THIRD  FART. 
i-ix.     The  Reign  of  Solomon. 

In  his  treatment  of  the  reign  of  Solomon  the  chronicler  gives 
yet  further  indication  of  the  special  aim  which  determines  his 
selection  of  material.  Introducing  the  reader  to  the  reign  of 
Israel's  most  magnificent  ruler  by  an  account  of  the  inaugural 
sacrifices  at  Gibeon  and  a  brief  reference  to  his  extraordinary 
power  and  wealth,  he  devotes  the  greater  part  of  his  space  to  the 
central  theme  of  the  building  of  the  Temple  and  the  organization 
of  its  afi*airs.  This  is  followed  by  a  summary  of  Solomon's  other 
architectural  achievements,  a  description  of  his  grandeur,  and  an 
account  of  his  further  ecclesiastical  arrangements. 

The  materials  for  this  narrative  have  been  taken  very  largely 
from  sources  identical  with  those  of  i  Kings  i  to  xi  ;  but  the 
chronicler's  work  is  remarkable  both  for  its  omissions  and  for  its 
additions  thereto.  He  undoubtedly  represents  Solomon  in  a 
different  light  from  that  in  which  he  stands  in  the  earlier  history. 
To  the  author  of  i  Kings,  Solomon  was  a  ruler  of  genius  and 
initiative,  anxious  for  the  aggrandizement  of  himself  and  of  his 
country.  He  depicts  the  unfolding  civilization  and  the  growing 
splendour  of  his  age,  and  shows  how  the  king's  tastes  were 
gratified  by  his  costly  building  operations.  But  he  also  records 
his  marriage  alliance  with  an  alien  princess,  his  prolific  idolatry, 
and  his  political  troubles. 

The  chronicler  depicts  Solomon  in  a  manner  which  would  leave 
an  altogether  erroneous  impression,  did  we  not  possess  the 
supplementary  details  of  i  Kings.  Omitting  the  history  of 
Adonijah's  conspiracy,  the  Egyptian  marriage,  the  splendour  of 
the  court,  the  building  of  the  palace,  the  growth  of  royal 
idolatry,  and  the  numerous  political  dissensions,  he  shows  Solomon 
as,  par  excellence,  the  Temple-Builder. 


II   CHRONICLES    1.  2,  3.     Ch  177 

in  his  kingdom^  and  the  Lord  his  God  was  with  him,  and 
magnified  him  exceedingly.     And  Solomon  spake  unto  all  2 
Israel,  to  the  captains  of  thousands  and  of  hundreds,  and 
to  the  judges,  and  to  every  prince  in  all  Israel,  the  heads  of 
the  fathers'  houses.     So  Solomon,  and  all  the  congregation  3 
w'ith  him,  went  to  the  high  place  that  was  at  Gibeon  ;  for 


So  far  as  the  chronicler  was  using  i  Kings  for  his  source  of 
information  he  was  employing  a  composite  narrative.  In  the 
Century  Bible  on  '  Kings '  (Skinner)  the  various  constituents  of 
this  portion  of  i  Kings  are  thus  named  : — (i)  Annals  of  the  reign 
of  Solomon  ;  (2)  Description  of  the  Temple  and  the  utensils  of 
worship ;  (3)  Narratives  of  incidents  in  Solomon's  reign ; 
(4)    Deuteronomic  additions. 

(i)  i.     Cotntnencetnent  of  Solomon's  Reign. 

i.  1-13.  Solomon  at  Gibeon.  No  sooner  was  Solomon  safely 
established  in  his  kingdom  than  he  convened  a  great  national 
religious  assembly  at  the  shrine  of  Gibeon.  A  solemn  holocaust 
was  offered  upon  the  brazen  altar  before  the  ancient  Tabernacle ; 
and  during  the  following  night  Jehovah  appeared  to  Solomon 
in  a  dream  and  granted  his  request  for  the  wisdom  requisite 
for  the  discharge  of  the  royal  office.  The  material  for  the  narrative 
is  found  in  i  Kings,  thus  : — 

2  Chron.  i.  3*        =:^  i  Kings  iii.  4*^ 

„         i.  e^-is  =        „        iii.  4^-13,  15^  and  iv.  i. 

It  has  been  fully  worked  over  in  the  hands  of  the  chronicler. 

1.  streng-tliened  in  Ms  kingdom:  the  threatened  rebellion 
of  Adonijah  was  crushed,  undesirable  characters  removed,  and  the 
throne  rendered  as  secure  as  possible.  Upon  every  act  of  the 
young  monarch  the  divine  blessing  manifestly  rested. 

2.  Solomon  spake  unto  all  Israel:  it  was  a  national  and 
representative  assembly  that  gathered  to  accompany  the  young 
king  to  this  ecclesiastical  consecration  of  the  new  reign. 

3.  the  hig-li  place  tliat  was  at  Gibeon:  Gibeon,  in  the  territory 
of  Benjamin,  6  miles  north-west  of  Jerusalem,  is  represented  by 
the  modern  el-Jib.  The  chronicler's  assertion  that  Solomon 
convened  the  assembly  at  this  spot  is  explained  by  the  statement 
that  the  Mosaic  Tabernacle  and  the  brazen  altar  were  there. 
This  addition  to  the  briefer  narrative  of  i  Kings  is  regarded  by 
many  critics  as  unreliable,  and  as  due  to  the  chronicler's 
reluctance  to  recognize  that  the  high-place  of  Gibeon  was  the 
site   of  a  prominent,   ancient   Canaanitish   sanctuary.      But   the 

N 


178  II   CHRONICLES  1.  4-10.     Ch  Ch^ 

there  was  the  tent  of  meeting  of  God,  which  Moses  the  ser- 

4  vant  of  the  Lord  had  made  in  the  wilderness.  But  the  ark 
of  God  had  David  brought  up  from  Kiriath-jearim  to  the 
place  that  David  had  prepared  for  it :  for  he  had  pitched 

5  a  tent  for  it  at  Jerusalem.  Moreover  the  brasen  altar, 
that  Bezalel  the  son  of  Uri^  the  son  of  Hur,  had  made, 
was  there  before  the  tabernacle  of  the  Lord  :  and  Solo- 

6  mon  and  the  congregation  sought  unto  it.  [Ch^]  And 
Solomon  went  up  thither  to  the  brasen  altar  before  the 
Lord,  which  was  at  the  tent  of  meeting,  and  offered  a 
thousand  burnt  offerings  upon  it. 

7  In  that  night  did  God  appear  unto  Solomon,  and  said 

8  unto  him.  Ask  what  I  shall  give  thee.  And  Solomon 
said  unto  God,  Thou  hast  shewed  great  kindness  unto 
David  my  father,  and  hast  made  me  king  in  his  stead. 

9  Now,  O  Lord  God,  let  thy  promise  unto  David  my  father 
be  established :  for   thou    hast   made  me   king  over  a 

10  people  like  the  dust  of  the  earth  in  multitude.     Give  me 

chronicler  is  evidently  recording  what  was  a  fixed  belief  in  his 
own  age,  and  as  such  it  may  be  credited.  We  find  the  same 
beHef  expressed  in  i  Chron.  xxi.  29.  Yet  the  disHke  of  the 
Deuteronomic  school  of  historians  to  any  reference  to  remnants  of 
Canaanitish  worship  is  shown  even  in  i  Kings  iii.  4,  where  the 
words  'high  place'  are  changed  to  'the  altar'  in  some  MSS. 

5.  Bezalel:  cf.  Exod.  xxxi.  2,  xxxv.  30,  xxxvii.  i,  &c. 

was  there:    (Heb.   sham)   so   many  MSS.    read,  but  many 
early  MSS.  and  the  Syriac  version  read  'he  had  put'  (Heb.  sdm). 

7.  In  that  nig-ht :  i.  e.  in  the  night  following  the  great 
sacrifices.  The  author  of  Kings  says  that  Jehovah  appeared  to 
Solomon  in  a  dream,  and  this  is  at  least  implied  here.  Jehovah's 
words  are,  '  Ask  what  I  shall  give  thee ! ' 

i.  8  10.  Solomon's  reply  is  given  much  more  briefly  than  in 
I  Kings  iii.  6-9,  where  the  language  is  very  heavily  laden  with 
Deuteronomic  phrases.  We  are  reminded  by  the  wording  of  our 
passage  of  i  Chron.  xvii.  23. 

10.  Give  me  now  wisdom  and  knowledg-e :  i  Kings  says  *  an 
understanding  heart.'     He  desired  intellectual  and  moral  fitness 


II   CHRONICLES  1.  11-14.     Ch^  H  179 

now  wisdom  and  knowledge,  that  I  may  go  out  and  come 
in  before  this  people  :  for  who  can  judge  this  thy  people, 
that  is  so  great?  And  God  said  to  Solomon,  Because  this  u 
was  in  thine  heart,  and  thou  hast  not  asked  riches,  wealth, 
or  honour,  nor  the  Hfe  of  them  that  hate  thee,  neither  yet 
hast  asked  long  life ;  but  hast  asked  wisdom  and  know- 
ledge for  thyself,  that  thou  mayest  judge  my  people,  over 
whom  I  have  made  thee  king :  wisdom  and  knowledge  is  12 
granted  unto  thee ;  and  I  will  give  thee  riches,  and  wealth, 
and  honour,  such  as  none  of  the  kings  have  had  that  have 
been  before  thee,  neither  shall  there  any  after  thee  have 
the  like.     So  Solomon  c2imQ  from  Ms  journey  to  the  high  13 
place  that  was  at  Gibeon,  from  before  the  tent  of  meeting, 
unto  Jerusalem  ;  and  he  reigned  over  Israel. 

[H]  And  Solomon  gathered  chariots  and  horsemen  :  14 

for  his  position,  rather  than  wealth.  The  solemnity  of  the  great 
religious  ceremonies  at  Gibeon,  together  with  a  due  appreciation  of 
the  responsibilities  of  his  position,  led  Solomon  to  desire  to  be  a 
discreet  rather  than  a  magnificent  monarch.  This  request  so 
reveals  a  harmony  with  the  will  of  Jehovah  that  he  not  only 
grants  it  but  promises  to  add  to  it  all  that  will  make  the  reign 
glorious. 

that  I  may  go  out  and  come  in :  i.  e.  perform  the  duties  of 
the  kingship. 

judge :  the  dispensation  of  justice  was  the  prerogative  of  an 
eastern  king,  but  the  whole  round  of  royal  duties  seems  to  be 
implied  here. 

i.  11-13.  The  promise  of  God  is  given  in  language  considerably 
briefer  than  in  i  Kings,  and  the  assurance  of  a  long  life  is  omitted, 
probably  because  Solomon  failed  to  fulfil  the  condition  and  so  to 
receive  the  promise. 

13.  to  the  high  place :  read  '  from  the  high  place '  with  LXX 
and  Vulgate. 

he  reigned  over  Israel:  corresponds  to  i  Kings  iv.  i, 
the  intervening  account  of  sacrifices  before  the  Ark  at  Jerusalem 
being  omitted  by  the  chronicler. 

i.  14-17.  Solomon^s  Horses  and  Chariots.  This  section  is  taken 
very  closely  from  i  Kings  x.  26-29  ^^^  is  repeated  with  some 
variations  in  2  Chron.  ix.   13-28.     The  narrative  deals  with  the 

N    2 


i8o  II   CHRONICLES  1.  15,  16.     H 

and  he   had   a   thousand   and   four  hundred  chariots, 
and  twelve  thousand  horsemen,  which  he  placed  in  the 

15  chariot  cities,  and  with  the  king  at  Jerusalem.  And  the 
king  made  silver  and  gold  to  be  in  Jerusalem  as  stones, 
and  cedars  made  he  to  be  as  the  sycomore  trees  that  are 

16  in  the  lowland,  for  abundance.  And  the  horses  which 
Solomon  had  were  brought  out  of  Egypt ;  the  king's 
merchants  received  them  in  droves,  each  drove  at  a  price. 


horses  and  chariots  gathered  by  the  king,  the  regular  traffic  in 
horses,  and  the  prices  paid.  Verse  15  may  be  an  interpolation  in 
the  original  as  it  breaks  the  connexion  of  the  narrative. 

14.  chariots  and  horsemen :  this  was  contrary  to  the  Deutero- 
nomic  legislation.  Cf.  Deut.  xvii.  i6.  The  numbers  are  given  dif- 
ferently in  the  parallel  passage  in  2  Chron.  ix.  25,  and  the  various 
recensions  of  the  LXX  show  considerable  discrepancies  in  dealing 
with  these  passages  and  the  corresponding  verse  in  i  Kings. 

15.  The  verse  is  clearly  out  of  place  in  the  context. 

in  the  lowland:  i.e.  the  Shephelah.     Cf.  note  on  i  Chron. 
xxvii.  28. 

16.  The  variations  found  in  the  LXX  and  in  the  Vulgate  make  it 
evident  that  the  text  is  corrupt  here.  Another  proof  of  corruption  is 
found  in  the  mention  of  Egypt,  for  it  is  almost  certain  that  horses  were 
not  exported  thence  in  the  time  of  Solomon.  In  the  Vulgate  we 
read  of  a  second  place  of  exportation  of  horses  in  addition  to 
Egypt :  viz.  Kue,  and  this  has  led  to  the  critical  adoption  of  the 
reading  suggested  here  by  Hugo  Winckler  (cf.  Alttestametttliche 
Untersuchmgen) :  '  And  the  export  of  Solomon's  horses  was  from 
Muzri  and  Kue.'  The  corruption  of  this  text  was  an  easy  matter, 
Muzri  (the  name  for  Cappadocia)  was  easily  mistaken  for  Mizraim 
(Egypt)  and  then  the  Hebrew  word  Mikkoe  ('  from  Koe,'  i.  e. 
Cilicia)  was  corrupted  to  Mikwe,  'a  drove.'  The  original 
narrative  declared  that  Solomon,  like  the  kings  of  Syria  (cf.  Ezek. 
xxvii.  14),  received  his  horses  from  the  great  horse-breeding 
districts  of  Cappadocia  and  Cihcia.  The  question  then  arises, 
How  did  the  corruption  occur?  It  is  conceivable  that  the  chronicler 
(i)  found  the  text  of  i  Kings  already  corrupt,  or  (2)  himself 
misunderstood  the  original.  It  is  probable  that  both  causes 
contributed  to  our  text,  i.e.  the  chronicler  already  found  Egypt 
(Mizraim)  instead  of  Cappadocia  (Muzri)  and  then  further 
modified  the  original  to  harmonize  it  with  this  corruption. 

the  king's  merchants  . . .  price  :  read  '  the  king's  merchants 
bought  them  from  Kue  at  a  price.' 


II   CHRONICLES  1.  17—2.  2.     H  Ch  Ch^     181 

And  they  fetched  up,  and  brought  out  of  Egypt  a  chariot  17 
for  six  hundred  shekels  of  silver,  and  an  horse  for  an  hun- 
dred and  fifty  :  and  so  for  all  the  kings  of  the  Hittites, 
and  the  kings  of  Syria,  did  they  bring  them  out  by  their 
means. 

[Ch]  Now  Solomon  purposed  to  build  an  house  for  2 
the  name  of  the  Lord,  and  an  house  for  his  kingdom. 
[Ch^]  And  Solomon  told  out  threescore  and  ten  thousand  a 

17.  Egypt:  again  read  Muzri,  i.e.  Cappadocia. 

the  kings  of  the  Hittites :  the  ancient  Hittite  empire  was 
situated  between  the  Euphrates  and  the  Orontes  in  northern  Syria, 
with  Carchemish  as  one  of  its  most  important  centres.  Its  power 
was  at  its  height  as  early  as  1000  b.  c.  Solomon  made  marriage 
alliances  with  Hittite  princesses.  Between  i6oo  and  1300  b.  c. 
the  Pharaohs  conducted  numerous  campaigns  against  the  mis- 
cellaneous principalities  of  the  Hittites  which  lay  around  the 
Taurus  mountains,  but  never  succeeded  in  completing  their 
subjugation.  Evidently  the  Hittites  were  formidable  rivals  of  the 
Babylonians,  although  the  name  Hittite  does  not  appear  in  any 
cuneiform  inscription  earlier  than  iioo  b.  c,  when  Tiglath-Pileser 
I  claims  a  victory  over  them.  They  disappeared  from  history  as 
an  imperial  power  in  the  eighth  century  b.  c. 

(2)  ii.     Preparations  for  the  Temple. 

The  first  great  undertaking  of  the  reign  of  Solomon  was  the 
building  of  the  Temple.  Upon  the  base  of  the  lavish  preparations 
of  David,  Solomon  proceeded  to  make  further  provision.  He 
entered  into  a  commercial  treaty  with  Huram,  king  of  Tyre,  to 
secure  timber  and  skilled  labour  in  return  for  oil  and  grain.  Huram, 
long  an  ally  of  David's  house,  readily  consented  to  further  Solomon's 
schemes — all  the  more  eagerly  in  that  he  was  himself  a  renowned 
architect.  The  narrative  is  elaborated  in  the  chronicler's  usual 
manner  from  i  Kings  v.  2-18. 

1.  Solomon  purposed  to  build  an  house:  in  the  Hebrew  text 
this  verse  stands  as  the  closing  verse  of  chap.  i.  It  is,  however, 
correctly  placed  by  the  Revisers  as  the  introduction  to  the  follow- 
ing narrative  of  Solomon's  preparations  for  the  Temple.  The 
chronicler  omits  the  account  of  Huram's  embassy  of  congratulation 
to  Solomon  on  his  succession. 

an  house  for  his  kingdom :  this  and  chap.  vii.  1 1  are  the 
only  references  to  the  royal  palace  upon  which  Solomon  bestowed 
more  time  and  labour  than  upon  the  Temple.    Cf.  i  Kings  vii,  i,  2. 

2.  Solomon  levied  a  vast  body  of  men  from  among  his  subjects 


i82  II   CHRONICLES  2.  3-5.     Ch^ 

men  to  bear  burdens,  and  fourscore  thousand  men  that 
were  hewers  in  the  mountains,  and  three  thousand  and 

3  six  hundred  to  oversee  them.  And  Solomon  sent  to 
Huram  the  king  of  Tyre,  saying,  As  thou  didst  deal  with 
David  my  father,  and  didst  send  him  cedars  to  build  him 

4  an  house  to  dwell  therein,  even  so  deal  with  me.  Behold, 
I  build  an  house  for  the  name  of  the  Lord  my  God,  to 
dedicate  it  to  him,  and  to  burn  before  him  incense  of 
sweet  spices,  and  for  the  continual  shewbread,  and  for  the 
burnt  offerings  morning  and  evening,  on  the  sabbaths, 
and  on  the  new  moons,  and  on  the  set  feasts  of  the  Lord 

5  our  God.     This  is  an  ordinance  for  ever  to  Israel.     And 

for  forced  labour  in  cutting  timber  and  hewing  stone  for  the 
Temple  and  the  palace  (cf.  note  on  verse  17).  The  numbers, 
though  large,  are  not  open  to  suspicion,  as  the  work  to  be  done 
would  probably  require  as  many  workmen,  when  the  conditions  of 
forced  labour  are  allowed  for.  In  i  Kings  v.  13  we  read  of  a  smaller 
levy  for  the  forest  work  in  Lebanon.  Our  text  has  reference  to 
the  labour  in  the  home  quarries,  where  70,000  were  hauliers,  80,000 
quarrymen,  and  3,600  overseers  (one  to  every  forty-two  workmen). 
In  place  of  3,600  for  the  overseers  i  Kings  has  3,300 ;  the  difference 
being  due  to  the  fact  that  the  earlier  history  only  numbers  the 
lower  ranks  of  overseers. 

in  the  mountains:  good  limestone  was  obtainable  in  the  hills 
of  Palestine. 

ii.  3-16.      Treaty  with  Huram. 

3.  Huram  the  king  of  Tyre :  cf.  note  on  i  Chron.  xiv.  i.  The 
original  form  of  the  name  probably  was  Hirom.  According  to  the 
accepted  chronology  (cf.  Winckler),  Huram  ascended  the  throne 
of  Tyre  in  968  b.  c,  or  some  three  years  later  than  the  accession 
of  Solomon  to  the  throne  of  David.  Huram's  friendship  is  said 
to  have  cheered  David's  later  days,  but  cf.  note  on  i  Chron.  xiv.  i. 

4.  an  house  for  the  name  of  the  LORD :  i.e.  for  Jehovah  Himself. 
The  specific  acts  of  worship  named  are  those  prescribed  in  the 
Deuteronomic  ritual. 

an  ordinance  for  ever:  the  wide  difference  between  this 
passage  and  the  parallel  passage  in  i  Kings  shows  that  both 
authors  were  freely  paraphrasing  the  royal  message.  The  language 
of  2  Chronicles  betrays  the  standpoint  of  one  who  was  familiar 
with  the  ritual  of  the  second  Temple  and  Ezra's  legislation. 


II   CHRONICLES  2.  6-10.     Ch^  183 

the  house  which  I  build  is  great :  for  great  is  our  God 
above  all  gods.     But  who  is  able  to  build  him  an  house,  6 
seeing  the  heaven  and  the  heaven  of  heavens  cannot 
contain  him  ?  who  am  I  then,  that  I  should  build  him  an 
house,  save  only  to  burn  incense  before  him  ?  Now  there-  7 
fore  send  me  a  man  cunning  to  work  in  gold,  and  in  silver, 
and  in  brass,  and  in  iron,  and  in  purple,  and  crimson,  and 
blue,  and  that  can  skill  to  grave  all  7fia?i7ier  ^gravings,  to 
he  with  the  cunning  men  that  are  with  me  in  Judah  and  in 
Jerusalem,  whom  David  my  father  did  provide.     Send  8 
me  also  cedar  trees,  fir  trees,  and  algum  trees,  out  of 
Lebanon  :  for  I  know  that  thy  servants  can  skill  to  cut 
timber  in  Lebanon ;  and,  behold,  my  servants  shall  be 
with  thy  servants,  even  to  prepare  me  timber  in  abun-  9 
dance :  for  the  house  which  I  am  about  to  build  shall  be 
wonderful  great.     And,  behold,  I  will  give  to  thy  servants,  10 


5.  great  is  our  God:  cf.  Deut.  x.  17. 

6.  the  heaven  of  heavens  cannot  contain  him:  the  chronicler 
is  writing  with  the  language  of  Solomon's  dedicatory  prayer  in  his 
mind  ;  cf.  2  Chron.  vi.  18. 

only  to  burn  incense :  Solomon  confesses  his  unworthiness 
to  build  the  Temple,  and  declares  that  his  only  aim  is  to  be  able 
fitly  to  perform  the  acts  of  reverent  worship  of  Jehovah. 

*7.  a  man  cunning*:  Solomon  asks  for  a  skilled  smith  for  the 
working  of  precious  metals  and  stones  to  aid  his  own  craftsmen 
and  to  take  charge  of  the  entire  decorative  work  of  the  sanctuary. 

8.  fir  trees :  margin  '■  cypress  trees,'  but  Robertson  Smith 
argues  in  favour  of  'fir.' 

algum  trees :  another  form  of  the  word  is  '  almug ' ;  it 
probably  denotes  the  sandal-wood  and  it  is  said  elsewhere  to  have 
been  obtained  from  Ophir. 

9.  shall  be  wonderful  great:  the  Hebrew  expresses  it  by 
using  the  adverbial  infinitive. 

10.  The  narrative  in  i  Kings  makes  it  evident  that  the  natural 
produce  mentioned  here  was  contributed  yearly  to  serve  both  as 
payment  and  for  the  maintenance  of  the  labourers.  No  mention  is 
made  of  the  yearly  contribution  to  the  Tyrian  royal  house  of  which 
I  Kings  gives  details. 


i84  II   CHRONICLES  2.  ir-15.     Ch^ 

the  hewers  that  cut  timber,  twenty  thousand  measures  of 
beaten  wheat,  and  twenty  thousand  measures  of  barley, 
and  twenty  thousand  baths  of  wine,  and  twenty  thousand 

11  baths  of  oil.  Then  Huram  the  king  of  Tyre  answered  in 
writing,  which  he  sent  to  Solomon,  Because  the  Lord 
loveth  his  people,  he  hath  made  thee  king  over  them. 

12  Huram  said  moreover.  Blessed  be  the  Lord,  the  God  of 
Israel,  that  made  heaven  and  earth,  who  hath  given 
to  David  the  king  a  wise  son,  endued  with  discretion  and 
understanding,  that  should  build  an  house  for  the  Lord, 

13  and  an  house  for  his  kingdom.  And  now  I  have  sent  a 
cunning  man,  endued  with  understanding,  of  Huram  my 

14  father's,  the  son  of  a  woman  of  the  daughters  of  Dan,  and 
his  father  was  a  man  of  Tyre,  skilful  to  work  in  gold,  and 
in  silver,  in  brass,  in  iron,  in  stone,  and  in  timber,  in 
purple,  in  blue,  and  in  fine  linen,  and  in  crimson  ;  also  to 
grave  any  manner  of  graving,  and  to  devise  any  device : 
that  there  may  be  a  place  appointed  unto  him  v;ith  thy 
cunning  men,  and  with  the  cunning  men  of  my  lord 

15  David  thy  father.     Now  therefore  the  wheat  and   the 

measures  of  beaten  wheat :  the  word  '  measure '  is  literally 
*  cov''\  the  amount  was  about  eleven  bushels.  The  whole  contribu- 
tion was  such  as  would  probably  be  required  to  sustain  the  work- 
men employed.  The  expression  'beaten  wheat'  is  obscure,  and 
probably  arose  by  an  orthographical  error  for  the  word  for  '  food ' 
— read  '  wheat  for  food ' — so  LXX. 

11,  12.  The  language  of  Huram  is  such  as  a  worshipper  of 
Jehovah  might  use,  but  it  must  not  be  taken  to  imply  such  an 
attitude  in  his  case. 

13.  of  Huram  my  father's :  read  'namely  Huram-abi.'  The 
name  of  Huram's  father  was  Abibaal.  Hence  it  is  evident  that 
ahi  (  =  'my  father')  must  here  be  taken  as  a  termination  of  the 
craftsman's  name  precisely  as  it  is  often  found  as  the  first  syllable 
of  a  name,  e.  g.  Abi-melech. 

14.  Huram-abi  is  described  in  terms  which  recall  the  artificer 
of  the  Tabernacle,  Bezalel ;  cf.  Exod.  xxxi.  2. 

15.  16.  Huram  ratifies  the  agreement  which  Solomon  proposed. 


II   CHRONICLES  2.  i6— 3.  i.     Ch^         185 

barley,  the  oil  and  the  wine,  which  my  lord  hath  spoken 
of,  let  him  send  unto  his  servants :  and  we  will  cut  wood  16 
out  of  Lebanon,  as  much  as  thou  shalt  need  :  and  we  will 
bring  it  to  thee  in  floats  by  sea  to  Joppa ;  and  thou  shalt 
carry   it   up   to  Jerusalem.      And   Solomon   numbered  17 
all  the  strangers  that  were  in  the  land  of  Israel,  after  the 
numbering  wherewith  David  his  father  had  numbered 
them;    and    they   were    found    an    hundred    and    fifty 
thousand  and  three  thousand  and  six  hundred.     And  he  iS 
set  threescore  and  ten  thousand  of  them  to  bear  burdens, 
and  fourscore  thousand  that  were  hewers  in  the  moun- 
tains, and  three  thousand  and  six  hundred  overseers  to 
set  the  people  awork. 

Then  Solomon  besjan  to  build  the  house  of  the  Lord  3 


The  floats  of  timber  were  to  be  navigated  as  far  as  Joppa  (i.  e. 
Jaffa),  the  port  of  Jerusalem. 

1*7,  1Z.  Solomon's  Levy  of  Aliens.  Solomon  ordered  an  enumera- 
tion of  all  the  descendants  of  the  Canaanites  who  remained  in  the 
land  (cf.  I  Chron.  xxii.  2).  Thus  we  learn  that  the  levy  mentioned 
in  verse  2  was  limited  to  the  alien  population. 

(3)  iii — V.  I.     The  Building  0/ the  Temple. 

The  description  of  the  Temple  buildings  is  derived  from 
I  Kings  vi.  1-3,  5-35,  vii.  15-21,  23-26,  38-51,  and  leads  up  to 
certain  critical  problems.  Yet  it  is  scarcely  necessary  to  concern 
ourselves  here  with  the  corruptions  existing  in  the  text  of  the 
Book  of  Kings.  We  are  merely  concerned  to  know  what  the 
chronicler  himself  wrote.  His  originals  were  undoubtedly 
corrupt,  and  in  many  cases  they  certainly  differed  from  what  the 
author  of  i  Kings  originally  wrote  ;  yet  they  appear  to  have  been 
generally  identical  with  the  present  inaccurate  text  of  i  Kings. 
In  working  over  these  originals  our  writer  has  taken  special  care 
to  use  all  facts  referring  to  the  Temple  and  its  ritual. 

At  the  outset  the  site  of  the  Temple  and  the  dates  of  the  building 
are  determined.  Then  the  Templebuildings  are  described,  commenc- 
ing with  the  outer  buildings  and  concluding  with  the  interior.  The 
descriptionfalls  into  six  sections,  viz.  (i)  iii.  1-3,  Preliminary  Details ; 
(2)  iii.  4-7,  The  Porch  and  the  Holy  Place  ;    (3)  iii.  8-14,  The 


i86  II   CHRONICLES  3.  2,  3.     Ch^ 

at  Jerusalem  in  mount  Moriah,  where  the  Lord  appeared 
unto  David  his  father,  which  he  made  ready  in  the  place 
that  David  had  appointed,  in  the  threshing-floor  of  Oman 

2  the  Jebusite.     And  he  began  to  build  in  the  second  day 
of  the  second  month,  in  the  fourth  year  of  his  reign. 

3  Now  these  are  the  foundations  which  Solomon  laid  for 


Inner  Shrine  ;  (4)  iii.  15-17,  The  Brazen  Pillars ;  (5)  iv.  1-22, 
The  Sacred  Vessels  and  the  Court ;  (6)  v.  i,  Completion  of  the 
Temple. 

(i)  iii.  1-3.   Preliminary  Details. 

1.  in  mount  Moriah.:  the  account  of  the  Temple  buildings  is 
prefaced  by  a  description  of  the  site.  This  is  stated  to  be  '  in 
mount  Moriah ' ;  but  great  obscurity  hangs  over  the  position 
indicated.  Its  only  other  mention  is  in  Genesis  xxii,  and  there 
it  is  used  of  the  scene  of  Abraham's  interrupted  sacrifice  of  Isaac. 
Between  the  date  of  the  composition  of  Genesis  and  the  time  of 
the  chronicler  the  name  does  not  occur  again.  But  evidently  the 
belief  that  the  Temple  stood  upon  the  actual  spot  of  Abraham's 
sacrifice,  as  also  of  Oman's  threshing-floor,  had  become  so  well 
established  by  the  age  of  the  chronicler  that  he  is  able  to  identify 
the  one  spot  for  both  scenes  without  need  of  further  explanation. 
The  words  '  mount  Moriah  '  have  been  explained  as  a  corruption 
of  '  mountain  of  the  Amorites '  (so  Syriac)  or  even  as  meaning 
'  mountain  of  the  appearance  of  Jehovah^'  but  both  these  ex- 
planations are  unsatisfactory.  Moriah  is  the  lofty  hill  which  lies 
to  the  north-east  of  Jerusalem  ;  it  rises  some  200  feet  above  the 
south-east  hill  on  which  stood  the  ancient  fortress  of  Zion,  and 
afforded  a  tolerably  level  surface  of  about  5,500  square  yards. 
(Cf  '  Kings '  by  Skinner  in  Century  Bible  for  a  full  discussion  of  the 
Temple  site.) 

where  the  LORD  appeared  unto  David :  the  text  is  unin- 
telligible as  it  stands  in  the  Hebrew.  Read,  with  LXX  and  Vulgate, 
as  in  the  R.  V.  margin,  '  in  the  place  which  David  had  prepared, 
in  the  threshing-floor.' 

3.  these  are  the  foundations  :  the  Temple  building  rose  upon 
a  rectangular  foundation  measuring  60  cubits  from  east  to  west 
and  20  cubits  from  north  to  south.  From  i  Kings  vi.  20,  we 
gather  that  these  were  the  internal  measurements,  and  one  may 
perhaps  infer  from  the  description  of  EzckiePs  ideal  Temple  that 
there  was  an  inner  wall  of  6  cubits  thickness  and  an  outer  wall 
of  5  cubits  (Ezek.  xli.  5,  9),  between  which  were  situated  the 
three  stories  of  cells.     The  completed  Temple  would  present  the 


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i88  II   CHRONICLES  3.  4-6.     Ch^ 

the  building  of  the  house  of  God,     The  length  by  cubits 
after  the  first  measure  was  threescore  cubits,  and  the 

4  breadth  twenty  cubits.  And  the  porch  that  was  before 
the  house^  the  length  of  it,  according  to  the  breadth  of  the 
house,  was  twenty  cubits,  and  the  height  an  hundred  and 

5  twenty  :  and  he  overlaid  it  within  with  pure  gold.  And 
the  greater  house  he  cieled  with  fir  tree,  which  he  over- 
laid with  fine  gold,  and  wrought  thereon  palm  trees  and 

6  chains.     And  he  garnished  the  house  with  precious  stones 

appearance   of  a  massive  pile  of  buildings  somewhat  after   the 
Phoenician  style  of  architecture. 

"by  cubits  after  the  first  measure  :  the  phrase  denotes  the 
ancient  measurement  known  as  the  sacred  cubit,  which  was 
longer  than  the  ordinary  cubit.  The  exact  length  of  the  cubit  is 
uncertain,  but,  on  the  basis  of  the  Egyptian  cubit,  it  may  roughly 
be  reckoned  as  20-7  inches  (cf.  '  Weights  and  Measures '  in 
Ency.  Bib.).  This  gives  the  interior  measurements  of  the  Temple 
foundations  as  104  x  35  feet. 

(2)  iii.  4-7.  The  Porch  and  Holy  Place.  The  great  entrance 
porch  is  here  stated  to  have  measured  20  cubits  (35  feet)  from 
north  to  south,  and  to  have  attained  a  height  of  120  cubits 
(208  feet).  Behind  the  porch  lay  the  main  hall,  or  nave,  of  the 
Temple,  and  yet  further  westward  lay  the  sacred  inner  shrine. 

4.  The  Hebrew  text  is  quite  unintelligible  and  must  be 
emended.  Kittel  suggests  a  reading  based  on  the  LXX  along 
with  I  Kings  vi.  3  :  '  and  the  porch  which  was  before  the  Ark, 
according  to  the  breadth  of  the  house,  was  20  cubits,'  &c. 

the  height  an  hundred  and  twenty  :  the  absolute  want  of 
proportion  suggests  an  error  in  the  numbers.  If  the  height  of 
this  structure  actually  were  double  the  length  of  the  Temple  it 
would  be  a  tower  and  not  a  porch.  The  height  is  given  as  20 
cubits  in  LXX,  Syriac,  &c.  ;  but  this  does  not  accord  with  the 
height  of  the  pillars  as  given  in  i  Kings  vi.  36.  Perhaps  the 
original  figures  were  30  cubits  (53  feet). 

5.  the  greater  house  :  i.  e.  the  '  Holy  Place  '  or  nave,  usually 
designated  by  the  Hebrew  word  hekdl. 

he  cieled  with  fir  tree :  or,  '•  wainscoted  with  cypress  wood.' 
wroug-ht  thereon  palm  trees  and  chains  :    the  gold  which 

overlaid  the  interior  of  the  '  Holy  Place  '  was  carved  with  designs 

of  palms  and  garlands  (cf.  i  Kings  vi.  18). 

6.  with  precious  stones  :  such  lavish  decorations  seem  to  be 
quite  in  keeping  with  Oriental  custom. 


II   CHRONICLES  3.  7-1 1.     Ch^  189 

for  beauty  :   and  the  gold  was  gold  of  Parvaim.     He  7 
overlaid  also  the  house,  the  beams,  the  thresholds,  and 
the  walls  thereof,  and  the  doors  thereof,  with  gold ;  and 
graved  cherubim  on  the  walls.     And  he  made  the  most  8 
holy  house ;  the  length  thereof,  according  to  the  breadth 
of  the  house,  was  twenty  cubits,  and  the  breadth  thereof 
twenty  cubits  :  and  he  overlaid  it  with  fine  gold,  amount- 
ing to  six  hundred  talents.     And  the  weight  of  the  nails  9 
was  fifty  shekels  of  gold.     And  he  overlaid  the  upper 
chambers  with  gold.     And  in  the  most  holy  house  he  10 
made  two  cherubim  of  image  work;  and  they  overlaid 
them  with  gold.     And  the  wings  of  the  cherubim  were  u 

gold  of  Parvaim  :  Glaser  ^  identifies  the  source  of  Solomon's 
gold  with  Sak-el-Farwain  in  the  Yemen,  mentioned  by  the 
Arabian  geographer  Hamdani  ;  but  the  text  is  in  some  confusion, 
and  not  improbably  the  original  ran,  '  he  covered  it  with  timber  of 
fir  trees '  (Heb.  bcrosim). 

*7.  The  gold  ornamentation  described  here  bears  a  close  re- 
semblance to  that  of  Ezekiel's  Temple  (Ezek.  xli.  18)  ;  hence 
many  critics  believe  that  the  chronicler  is  describing  the  work  of 
later  days  as  though  it  were  actually  carried  out  under  Solomon. 
The  interior  of  the  building,  however,  was  certainly  lavishly 
adorned  with  gold  in  its  very  earliest  days. 

(3)  iii.  8-14.  The  Inner  Shrine.  West  of  the  *  Holy  Place '  was 
situated  the  smaller,  or  Most  Holy  Place.  It  had  no  windows,  and 
would  be  shrouded  in  darkness,  except  for  artificial  light. 

8.  most  holy  house:  the  Hebrew  literally  means,  '  the  house, 
the  Holy  of  holies,'  i.  e.  the  inner  shrine,  also  called  the  debir. 
It  measured  20  x  20  cubits  (35  x  35  feet),  and  the  chronicler  states 
that  the  gold  plating  was  valued  at  600  talents  (or  about 
;^3,69o,ooo),  while  the  nails  used  to  fasten  the  plates  of  metal  to 
the  wooden  walls  were  valued  at  50  shekels  (;^io3). 

9.  the  upper  chambers:  these  were  the  small  rooms  or 
storage  cells  between  the  walls. 

10-13.  the  cherubim:  within  the  debir  stood  two  winged 
figures,  the  cherubim.  These  seem  to  have  been  a  kind  of  Hebrew 
equivalent  to  the  winged  bulls  of  Assyria  and,  in  an  incomparably 
loftier  manner,  represented  the  presence  of  God.  They  were 
almost  certainly  of  human  form.  Unlike  the  cherubim  upon  the 
lid  of  the  Ark  (Exod.  xxv.  20),  they  both  faced  eastwards  towards 

^  Eduard  Glaser,  Austrian  traveller  in  Arabia. 


igo  II   CHRONICLES  3.  12-16.     Ch^ 

twenty  cubits  long :  the  wing  of  the  one  cherub  was  five 
cubits,  reaching  to  the  wall  of  the  house ;  and  the  other 
wing  was  Ukezvise  five  cubits,  reaching  to  the  wing  of  the 

12  other  cherub.  And  the  wing  of  the  other  cherub  was 
five  cubits,  reaching  to  the  wall  of  the  house :  and  the 
other  wing  was  five  cubits  also^  joining  to  the  wing  of  the 

13  other  cherub.  The  wings  of  these  cherubim  spread 
themselves  forth  twenty  cubits :  and  they  stood  on  their 

14  feet,  and  their  faces  were  toward  the  house.  And  he 
made  the  veil  of  blue,  and  purple,  and  crimson,  and  fine 

15  linen,  and  wrought  cherubim  thereon.  Also  he  made 
before  the  house  two  pillars  of  thirty  and  five  cubits  high, 
and  the  chapiter  that  was  on  the  top  of  each  of  them  was 

16  five  cubits.     And  he  made  chains  in  the  oracle,  and  put 

the  hekdl.  They  stood  lo  cubits  (i7j  feet)  in  height  with  wings 
extended  so  that  the  tip  of  the  right  wing  of  one  touched  the  tip 
of  the  left  wing  of  the  other,  while  the  outer  wings  touched  the 
north  and  south  walls  respectively.  Each  wing  was  5  cubits 
(8|  feet)  in  length,  and  the  figures  were  overlaid  with  gold. 

14.  The  veil,  or  curtain,  dividing  the  de bir  (rom  the  hekdl  was 
woven  of  the  same  material  as  the  curtain  of  the  Mosaic 
Tabernacle  ;  of.  Exod.  xxvi.  31. 

(4)  iii.  15-17.  The  brazen  pillars.  Before  the  porch  of  the 
Temple  stood  two  great  brazen  pillars,  adorned  with  chapiters. 
They  are  more  fully  described  in  i  Kings  vii.  15-22. 

15.  thirty  and  five  cubits  hig-h  :  in  i  Kings  vii.  15  they  are 
said  to  be  18  cubits  high  and  12  cubits  in  circumference,  with 
chapiters  of  5  cubits  height.  If  these  dimensions  be  added 
together  they  give  the  chronicler's  figure  of  35,  which  may  have 
been  thus  erroneously  obtained.  More  probably  it  is  a  mere 
scribal  error,  as  the  Hebrew  numerals,  represented  by  letters  of 
the  alphabet,  are  easily  mistaken.     Thus  n'  (  =  18)  was  read  as 

^■'(=35). 

16.  he  made  chains  in  the  oracle:  i.  e  ornamental  chain- 
work  for  the  chapiters.  The  word  '  oracle  '  {debir)  is  meaningless 
here,  and  has  evidently  arisen  by  a  transposition  of  the  consonants  ; 
we  must  read  instead  rabid,  '  a  necklace,'  i.e.'  the  lower  border 
of  the  capital.'  Comparing  this  passage  with  i  Kings  vii.  17-20, 
41,  42,  and  2  Chron.  iv.  12,  13,  we  gather  that  the  chapiters  were 
in  two  parts.     The  first  section  was  globular  in  shape,  girded 


II   CHRONICLES  3.  17.     Ch" 


191 


them  on  the  tops  of  the  pillars  ;  and  he  made  an  hundred 
pomegranates,  and  put  them  on  the  chains.     And  he  set  17 
up  the  pillars  before  the  temple,  one  on  the  right  hand, 

with  a  chain-like  network  one  cubit  high,  with  a  row  of  carved 
pomegranates  below  and  above  the  chain-work.  Surmounting 
this  was  the  upper  section,  which  (according  to  the  uncertain 
description  in  i  Kings  vii.  17)  was  shaped  like  an  open  lily,  or 
constituted  a  border  of  lily  work. 


SCALE  OF  FEET 


Brazen  Pillars. 

Reproduced  from  the  Encyclopaedia  Bibltca,  by  permission  of 
Messrs.  A.  &  C.  Black. 


17.  The   meaning   of  the   verse   is   uncertain.      Possibly   the 
pillars  formed  an  integral  part  of  the  porch  and  sustained  the 


192  II   CHRONICLES  4.  1,2.     Ch^  H 

and  the  other  on  the  left ;  and  called  the  name  of  that  on 
the  right  hand  Jachin,  and  the  name  of  that  on  the  left 
Boaz.     [H]  Moreover  he  made  an  altar  of  brass,  twenty 

4  cubits  the  length  thereof,  and  twenty  cubits  the  breadth 
thereof,  and  ten  cubits  the  height  thereof.    Also  he  made 

2  the  molten  sea  of  ten  cubits  from  brim  to  brim,  round  in 


lintel,  as  in  Ezekiel's  Temple.  More  probably  they  stood  clear 
of  the  Temple,  that  named  Jachin  to  the  south  and  that  named 
Boaz  to  the  north.  The  latter  view  is  supported  by  the  fact  that 
similar  pillars  were  frequently  erected  before  Semitic  temples  ; 
and,  as  illustrated  on  ancient  coins  and  decorated  vases,  these 
pillars  are  always  distinct  from  the  porch  (cf.  Herodotus  ii.  44, 
the  Temple  of  Melkarth  at  Tyre,  &c.).  The  names  of  the  pillars 
are  unintelligible  to-day.  Jachin  (Heb.  =  '  He  shall  establish  ') 
is  the  Phoenician  equivalent  of  the  Hebrew  name  '  Jehovah ' 
(Heb.  'Yahweh').  Boaz  means  'In  it  is  strength.'  But  the 
very  fact  that  the  pillars  had  names  indicates  that  a  special 
significance  attached  to  them.  It  does  not  seem  probable  that 
they  had  any  religious  meaning  in  the  time  of  Solomon,  as,  for 
instance,  standing  for  symbols  of  Jehovah.  But  the  custom  of 
erecting  two  columns  before  a  temple,  which  Solomon's  architects 
and  Tyrian  smiths  conventionally  followed,  although  the  signifi- 
cance had  been  forgotten,  may  be  traced  to  Semitic  symbolism 
of  the  deity.  The  two  obelisks  which  invariably  stood  before 
heathen  temples  were  supposed  to  be  the  abodes  of  the  deity  ; 
and  it  is  interesting  to  recall  the  fact  that  two  pillars  were 
erected  before  Babylonian  temples  as  symbols  of  the  gods 
Tammuz  and  Nin-giz-Zidar  (cf.  Sayce,  Early  Religion  of  Egypt  and 
Babylonia),  which  names  may  have  been  respectively  corrupted 
to  Boaz  and  Jachin.  In  Solomon's  Temple  the  pillars  still  re- 
mained in  agreement  with  prevalent  custom,  but  the  heathen 
significance  no  longer  attached  to  them. 

(5)  iv.  1-22.     The  Sacred  Vessels  and  the  Temple  Court. 

1.  an  altar  of  brass  :  the  forging  of  this  altar  of  brass  is 
not  mentioned  in  i  Kings  ;  and  in  our  text  we  merely  have  the 
measurements,  viz.  20x20x10  cubits  (i.e.  34|x34|xi7|-  feet). 
It  is  probable  that  the  altar  rose  in  stages,  each  diminishing  by 
two  cubits  as  in  Ezekiel's  Temple  (cf,  Ezek.  xliii.  13-17),  so  that 
the  actual  hearth  which  formed  the  third  stage  at  the  summit 
would  measure  2o|  x  20^  feet. 

2.  tlie  molten  sea :  this  stood  in  the  south-east  of  the  court 
of  the  Temple.     It  must  have  been  a  most  elaborate  specimen 


II   CHRONICLES  4.  3-6.     H  193 

compass,  and  the  height  thereof  was  five  cubits ;  and  a 
line  of  thirty  cubits  compassed  it  round  about.     And  3 
under  it  was  the  simiHtude  of  oxen,  which  did  compass  it 
round  about,  for  ten  cubits,  compassing  the  sea  round 
about.     The  oxen  were  in  two  rows,  cast  when  it  was 
cast.     It  stood  upon  twelve  oxen,  three  looking  toward  4 
the  north,  and  three  looking  toward  the  west,  and  three 
looking  toward  the  south,  and  three  looking  toward  the 
east :  and  the  sea  was  set  upon  them  above,  and  all  their 
hinder  parts  were  inward.     And  it  was  an  handbreadth  5 
thick ;  and  the  brim  thereof  was  wrought  like  the  brim  of 
a  cup,  like  the  flower  of  a  lily  :  it  received  and  held  three 
thousand  baths.      [Ch^]  He  made  also  ten  lavers,  and  6 


of  the  skilled  work  of  the  Tyrian  founder.  The  shape  is  somewhat 
uncertain.  Josephus  describes  it  as  a  hemisphere  {Ant.  viii.  35), 
but  the  capacity  named  in  the  text  makes  it  more  probable  that  it 
was  cylindrical.  Its  measurements  are  given  as  10  cubits 
(17I  feet)  in  diameter  and  5  cubits  (8§  feet)  in  depth.  It  stood 
upon  the  backs  of  twelve  brazen  oxen,  which  were  so  placed  that 
three  faced  towards  each  of  the  four  quarters  of  the  heavens. 

3.  similitude  of  oxen :  read,  with  i  Kings  vii.  24,  *  there 
were  knops.'  The  scribe  read  beqdrim  instead  of  peqvCim. 
A  knop  was  probably  a  gourd-shaped*  ornamentation.  In*  each 
case  where  the  word  '  oxen  '  occurs  in  the  verse  we  must  read 
'knops.' 

cast  wlien  it  was  cast :  i.  e.  they  were  in  relief,  not  carved 
as  undercut. 

5.  an  handbreadth  thick :  about  three  inches. 

like  the  brim  of  a  cup,  like  the  flower  of  a  lily:  the 
ornamental  brim  opened  out  at  the  top  of  the  sea. 

three  thousand  baths  :  i.  e.  24,015  gallons,  i  Kings  vii. 
36  reads  2,000  baths,  i.  e.  16,010  gallons.  There  must  be  a 
mistake  in  the  figures.  A  bath  is  just  over  eight  gallons.  If  the 
sea  were  hemispherical  its  capacity  would  have  been  exactly 
6,376  gallons ;  if  cylindrical,  10,798  gallons.  Hence  the  sea 
cannot  have  held  much  more  than,  say,  7,000  gallons  or  900 
baths.  Nothing  is  said  as  to  how  the  sea  was  filled  and  the 
water  drawn.  Klostermann  would  emend  i  Kings  vii.  23  so  as 
to  read  '  tliere  were  thirty  cocks  around  the  sea,'  and  it  has  been 


194  n   CHRONICLES  4.  7,  8.     H  Ch^ 

put  five  on  the  right  hand,  and  five  on  the  left,  to  wash  in 
them ;  such  things  as  belonged  to  the  burnt  offering  they 
washed  in  them  :  but  the  sea  was  for  the  priests  to  wash 

7  in.  And  he  made  the  ten  candlesticks  of  gold  according 
to  the  ordinance  concerning  them ;  and  he  set  them  in 
the  temple,  five  on  the  right  hand,  and  five  on  the  left. 

8  He  made  also  ten  tables,  and  placed  them  in  the  temple, 

conjectured  that  the  water  would  be  drawn,  fountain-like,  through 
the  mouths  of  the  ocean. 

6.  ten  lavers:  these  were  provided  for  the  washing  of  the 
sacrificial  gifts.  They  were  placed  upon  wheeled  stands  and 
were  situated  five  on  each  side  of  the  Temple  building.  They 
are  described  in  detail  in  i  Kings  vii.  27-39. 

the  sea  was  for  the  priests  to  wash  in:  the  manifest 
inconvenience  of  this,  unless  the  conjecture  that  the  water  was 
drawn  as  stated  above  be  correct,  suggests  that  the  '  sea,'  like 
the  brazen  pillars,  originally  had  a  symbolical  meaning.  Not 
improbably  the  presence  of  such  a  '  sea '  near  a  Semitic  temple 
symbolized  the  subterranean  ocean,  known  as  tehotn,  and  has 
an  historical  connexion  with  the  creation  story  of  Babylonia, 
according  to  which  the  gods  struggle  for  the  mastery  with  the 
dragon  (Tiamat).  Cf.  Sayce,  Early  Religions  of  Egypt  and 
Babylonia,  p.  458,  &c.  Of  course  this  does  not  imply  that  any 
such  heathen  ideas  were  connected  with  Solomon's  '  sea,' 
although  Hebrew  worshippers  might  still  read  in  its  symbolism 
the  power  of  Jehovah  over  the  deep.  It  is  noteworthy  that  in 
Ezekiel's  ideal  temple  the  *  sea '  is  replaced  by  a  symbolical 
fountain  (Ezek.  xlvii.  i). 

iv.  7-9.  The  Temple  Furnilure  and  Courts.  Probably  these 
verses  originally  stood  in  i  Kings  also,  and  have  been  omitted  by 
an  error.  They  are  summarized  in  i  Kings  vii.  48,  49,  as  also  in 
verses  19,  20  of  our  chapter. 

7.  ten  candlesticks  of  g-old :  artificial  lights  were  always 
employed,  both  of  necessity  and  symbolically,  in  Semitic  temples. 
Solomon's  candlesticks  stood  on  either  side  of  the  Holy  Place. 

accordin§f  to  the  ordinance :  the  phrase  refers  to  the 
Mosaic  regulations  (Exod.  xxv.  31  fi".)  and  probably  also  to  the 
patterns  given  by  David. 

8.  ten  tables :  Keil  explains  that  these  were  used  for  the 
shewbread  (verse  14)  ;  but  the  reasons  for  such  a  belief  are 
inadequate.  Probably  they  were  used  for  objects  connected  with 
the  candelabra,     i  Kings  knows  nothing  of  these  tables. 


II    CHRONICLES  4.  9-14.     Ch^  H  195 

five  on  the  right  side,  and  five  on  the  left.     And  he  made 
an   hundred   basons   of  gold.      Furthermore   he  made  9 
the  court  of  the  priests,  and  the  great  court,  and  doors  for 
the  court,  and  overlaid  the  doors  of  them  with  brass. 
[H]  And  he  set  the  sea  on  the  right  side  of  the  house  ro 
eastward,  toward  the  south.     And  Huram  made  the  pots,  11 
and  the  shovels,  and  the  basons.     So  Huram  made  an 
end  of  doing  the  work  that  he  wrought  for  king  Solomon 
in  the  house  of  God :  the  two  pillars,  and  the  bowls,  and  12 
the  two  chapiters  which  were  on  the  top  of  the  pillars ; 
and  the  two  networks  to  cover  the  two  bowls  of  the 
chapiters  that  were  on  the  top  of  the  pillars;  and  the  13 
four  hundred  pomegranates  for  the  two  networks;  two 
rows  of  pomegranates  for  each  network,  to  cover  the  two 
bowls  of  the  chapiters  that  were  upon  the  pillars.     He  14 
made  also  the  bases,  and  the  lavers  made  he  upon  the 


an  hundred  basons  :  possibly  these  were  flagons  for  wine 
and  libations  (Amos  vi.  6),  or  else  they  served  for  use  in  holding  the 
blood  for  sprinkling. 

9.  We  have  no  further  description  of  these  courts.  What 
seems  to  be  meant  here  is  that  the  actual  Temple  buildings  were 
surrounded  by  an  inner  wall  which  thus  formed  '  the  court  of 
the  priests,'  whereas  another  wall  encircled  the  entire  area  of 
the  Temple  hill.  The  earliest  reference  to  these  courts  occurs  in 
Ezekiel,  and  the  distinction  between  laity  and  ecclesiastic  was 
somewhat  late  in  securing  prominence. 

10.  The  statement  of  this  verse  refers  us  back  to  verse  2.  The 
'  sea  '  was  placed  in  the  south-east  corner  of  the  inner  court. 

H.  Ktiram  made  the  pots:  i.  e.  Huram-abi. 

iv.  11^-22.  Inventory  of  the  Temple  Furniture.  As  in  i  Kings 
vii.  40^-50,  the  work  of  Huram-abi  is  catalogued  in  such  a  way 
as  to  agree  substantially  with  the  preceding  descriptions.  There 
are  only  a  few  verbal  differences  between  this  inventory  and  the 
parallel  passage  in  i  Kings. 

12.  the  "bowls  :  the  lower  sections  of  the  chapiters. 

13.  upon  the  pillars  :  read  '  on  the  two  pillars.'  The  scribe 
has  read  pene  instead  of  shene. 

O    2 


196  II    CHRONICLES  4.  15-22.     H 

T5,  16  bases ;  one  sea,  and  the  twelve  oxen  under  it.  The 
pots  also,  and  the  shovels,  and  the  fleshhooks,  and 
all  the  vessels  thereof,  did  Huram  his  father  make  for 
king   Solomon   for   the   house   of  the    Lord  of  bright 

17  brass.     In  the  plain  of  Jordan  did  the  king  cast  them,  in 

18  the  clay  ground  between  Succoth  and  Zeredah.  Thus 
Solomon  made  all  these  vessels  in  great  abundance :  for 

19  the  weight  of  the  brass  could  not  be  found  out.  And 
Solomon  made  all  the  vessels  that  were  in  the  house 
of  God,  the  golden  altar  also,  and  the  tables  whereon  was 

20  the  shewbread ;  and  the  candlesticks  with  their  lamps, 
that  they  should  burn  according  to  the  ordinance  before 

21  the  oracle,  of  pure  gold ;  and  the  flowers,  and  the  lamps, 

22  and  the  tongs,  of  gold,  amd  that  perfect  gold;  and  the 
snuffers,  and  the  basons,  and  the  spoons,  and  the  firepans, 
of  pure  gold  :  and  as  for  the  entry  of  the  house,  the  inner 
doors  thereof  for  the  most  holy  place,  and  the  doors  of  the 

16.  fleshhooks:  Heb.  mizlugoth,  by  an  error  for  'basons,' 
Heb.  mizrdgoth.    Cf.  i  Kings  vii.  45. 

Kuram  his  father  :  read  Huram-abi.  Cf.  note  on  2  Chron. 
ii.  13. 

17.  In  the  plain  of  Jordan:  here  clay  was  to  be  found  in 
sufficient  quantities  for  Huram-abi's  work.  Cf.  G.  A.  Smith,  Hist. 
Geog.,  p.  488. 

in  the  clay  g-round :  the  text  is  suspicious,  and  perhaps 
Benzinger  is  correct  in  emending  thus  :  'at  the  ford  of  Admah.' 
Succoth  was  a  town  in  Gadite  territory  which  has  been  identified 
with  the  great  mound  known  as  Der'Alla.  Zeredah  has  not  been 
identified.  The  forge  of  Huram-abi  was  evidently  placed  with 
a  view  to  the  proximity  of  good  clay  and  of  good  roads  to  the 
capital. 

19.  the  g'olden  altar  :  i.  e.  the  altar  of  incense. 

tables  whereon  was  the  shewbread :  in  i  Kings  vii.  48 
there  is  mention  of  only  one  table  for  the  'bread  of  the  presence,' 
so  that  it  is  probable  that  we  should  read  the  word  in  the  singular 
number  and  that  this  table  is  distinct  from  those  mentioned  in 
verse  8. 

20.  candlesticks  :  in  later,  post-exilic,  days  there  was  only 
one  such  in  use. 


II   CHRONICLES  5.  i,  2.     H  197 

house,  /<?  7m' f,  of  the  temple,  were  of  gold.  Thus  all  the  5 
work  that  Solomon  wrought  for  the  house  of  the  Lord 
was  finished.  And  Solomon  brought  in  the  things  that 
David  his  father  had  dedicated ;  even  the  silver,  and  the 
gold,  and  all  the  vessels,  and  put  them  in  the  treasuries 
of  the  house  of  God. 

Then  Solomon  assembled  the  elders  of  Israel,  and  all  2 
the  heads  of  the  tribes,  the  princes  of  the  fathers'  houses 
of  the  children  of  Israel,  unto  Jerusalem,  to  bring  up  the 

(6)  V.  I.  Completion  of  the  Temple.  Having  thus  completed 
the  entire  work  of  the  Temple,  Solomon  brought  in  the  consecrated 
gifts  of  David  and  stored  them  in  the  treasuries. 

(4)  V.  2 — vii.  22.     Dedication  of  the  Temple. 
As  soon  as  the  labour  of  building  and  furnishing  the  national 
sanctuary    was  completed,    Solomon    convened  another  national 
assembly  for  the  solemn  dedication   of  the  Temple  to  Jehovah, 
The  narrative  evidently  falls  into  four  sections  : — 
(rt)  v.  2 — vi.  II.  The  Transport  of  the  Ark. 
(6)  vi.  12-42.   Solomon's  Dedicatory  Prayer, 
(c)  vii.  i-io.  The  Dedicatory  Sacrifices, 
(fl?)  vii.  11-22,   77?^  Divine  Response. 
The  material  for  the  narrative  occurs  in  i   Kings  viii  and  ix, 
but  the  chronicler  has  enlarged  characteristically  upon  the  part 
taken  by  the  Levitesin  the  proceedings,  and  has  added  considerable 
fresh  matter  in  the  closing  sections.      A  careful  examination  of 
the  sources  proves  that  the  prayer  of  Solomon  is  the  composition 
of  one   who  was  imbued  with  the  spirit  of  the  Deuteronomistic 
legislation,  and  that,  in   its  present    literary   form,  it   has   been 
compiled  at  a  later  date  than  the  actual  dedication  of  the  Temple. 

{a)  V.  2 — vi.  II.  The  Transpoti  of  the  Ark.  The  Ark  is  nov^ 
borne  by  the  Levites  from  its  tent  on  Mount  Zion  to  the  sacred 
debir  in  the  Temple,  to  the  accompaniment  of  sacrifices  and  songs  ; 
and  its  successful  transport  is  celebrated  by  the  grateful  monarch. 

V.  2-14.  The  Ark  is  carried  from.  Mount  Zion.  These  verses 
correspond  with  i  Kings  viii.  i-ii,  with  the  exception  of  the 
insertion  of  11^-13*. 

2.  th.e  elders  of  Israel :  i.  e.  the  tribal  princes  ;  the  heads  of 
the  tribes  are  further  described  as  '  princes  of  the  fathers'  houses,' 
i.  e.  of  the  tribal  clans. 


igS  II  CHRONICLES  5.  3-7.     H 

ark  of  the  covenant  of  the  Lord  out  of  the  city  of  David, 

3  which  is  Zion.  And  all  the  men  of  Israel  assembled 
themselves  unto  the  king  at  the  feast,  which  was  in  the 

4  seventh  month.     And  all  the  elders  of  Israel  came,  and 

5  the  Levites  took  up  the  ark.  And  they  brought  up  the 
ark,  and  the  tent  of  meeting,  and  all  the  holy  vessels  that 
were  in  the  Tent  \  these  did  the  priests  the  Levites  bring 

6  up.  And  king  Solomon  and  all  the  congregation  of 
Israel,  that  were  assembled  unto  him,  were  before  the  ark, 
sacrificing  sheep  and  oxen,  that  could  not  be  told  nor 

7  numbered  for  multitude.     And  the  priests  brought  in  the 

the  city  of  David,  which  is  Zion  :  i.  e.  the  ancient  Jebusite 
stronghold  on  the  heights  south  of  where  the  Temple  now  stood. 
As  the  Temple  hill  was  actually  loftier  than  the  site  of  Zion,  there 
is  a  perfect  aptness  in  the  phrase  *  to  bring  up  the  ark.' 

3.  at  the  feast,  which  was  in  the  seventh  month:  the 
chronicler  probably  omits  the  name  of  the  month  for  the  reason 
that  I  Kings  gives  its  Babylonian  name,  not  the  Hebrew.  The 
feast  is  that  of  the  harvest  or  vintage,  which  seems  to  have  been 
invariably  held  in  the  seventh  month  :  cf.  Num.  xxiii.  24-36 ; 
Lev.  xxix.  12-38.  Solomon  made  this  great  religious  festival  the 
occasion  for  the  dedication  of  the  Temple.  Seven,  or  possibly 
eight,  years  had  elapsed  since  the  laying  of  the  foundations. 

4.  the  Levites  took  up  the  ark :  i  Kings  viii.  3,  '  the  priests 
took  up  the  ark.'  The  alteration  reflects  the  enhanced  importance 
of  the  position  of  the  Levites  in  the  chronicler's  day.  Looking 
back  from  his  own  circumstances  he  felt  compelled  to  recognize 
Levites  in  these  bearers  of  the  Ark.  Hence  also  in  verse  5  it 
may  be  intentionally  that  the  phrase  of  i  Kings — '  the  priests  and 
the  Levites' — has  been  changed  into  'the  priests,  the  Levites,' 
although  the  versions  seem  to  indicate  merely  a  scribal  error  here. 

5.  the  tent  of  meeting- :  this  can  only  mean  the  Mosaic 
Tabernacle  :  cf.  note  on  i  Chron.  xvi.  39.  The  text  implies  that 
the  Tabernacle  had  been  packed  together  and  stowed  in  the  tent 
which  David  had  erected  for  the  Ark  on  Zion.  Whether  this  is 
historically  correct  is  scarcely  a  matter  for  our  present  considera- 
tion ;  we  know  that  the  chronicler  found  it  stated  and  credited 
in  his  own  day. 

6.  The  king,  the  princes,  and  the  people  preceded  the  Ark  and 
probably  offered  sacrifices  at  various  spots  en  route. 

7.  The  Ark  was  carried  by  the  bearers  into  the  darkness  and 
solitude  of  the  debir. 


II   CHRONICLES  5.  8-12.     H  Ch  199 

ark  of  the  covenant  of  the  Lord  unto  its  place,   into 
the  oracle  of  the  house,  to  the  most  holy  place,  even 
under  the  wings  of  the  cherubim.     For  the  cherubim  8 
spread  forth  their  wings  over  the  place  of  the  ark,  and  the 
cherubim  covered  the  ark  and  the  staves  thereof  above. 
And  the  staves  were  so  long  that  the  ends  of  the  staves  9 
were  seen  from  the  ark  before  the  oracle ;  but  they  were 
not  seen  without :  and  there  it  is,  unto  this  day.     There  10 
was  nothing  in  the  ark  save  the  two  tables  which  Moses 
put  there  at  Horeb,  when  the  Lord  made  a  covenant 
with  the  children  of  Israel,  when  they  came  out  of  Egypt. 
[Ch]  And  it  came  to  pass,  when  the  priests  were  come  n 
out  of  the  holy  place,  (for  all  the  priests  that  were  present 
had  sanctified  themselves,  and  did  not  keep  their  courses ; 
also  the  Levites  which  were  the  singers,  all  of  them,  even  1 2 
Asaph,  Heman,  Jeduthun,  and  their  sons  and  their  breth- 
ren, arrayed  in  fine  linen,  with  cymbals  and  psalteries  and 

8,  9.  The  Ark  was  so  placed  that  the  ends  faced  east  and  west. 
In  accordance  with  Mosaic  regulations  (Exod.  xxv.  15)  the  staves 
Were  not  removed,  but,  in  spite  of  their  length,  they  were  merely 
visible  from  the  gloom  of  the  dehir  to  any  one  in  the  hekdl. 

from  the  ark :  read  *  from  the  holy  place,'  with  LXX  and 
I  Kings. 

unto  this  day :  not,  of  course,  the  chronicler's  day. 

10.  Evidently  the  compiler  of  Kings  had  in  his  mind  the 
tradition  of  days  when  other  objects  were  kept  within  the  Ark 
(cf.  Heb,  ix.  4).  There  is  a  close  connexion  between  the 
Deuteronomic  expression  '  ark  of  the  covenant  of  Jehovah '  and 
the  alleged  contents  of  the  Ark  itself. 

two  tables :  read  '  the  tables  of  the  covenant  which '  with 
I  Kings. 

ll^-13^  These  verses  are  the  chronicler's  parenthesis  explain- 
ing the  action  of  the  priests  and  choristers  in  the  great  ceremony 
of  the  transport  of  the  Ark. 

11.  did  not  keep  their  courses:  the  whole  body  of  priests 
took  part  in  this  unique  festival. 

12.  The  entire  Levitic  choirs  were  summoned  to  the  ceremony, 
with  the  120  priestly  trumpeters.  Cf.  notes  on  i  Chron.  xv.  17-28 
and  xxv.  1-8. 


200        II   CHRONICLES  5.  13—6.  2.     Ch  H 

harps,  stood  at  the  east  end  of  the  altar,  and  with  them 
an  hundred  and  twenty  priests  sounding  with  trumpets  :) 

13  it  came  even  to  pass,  when  the  trumpeters  and  singers 
were  as  one,  to  make  one  sound  to  be  heard  in  praising 
and  thanking  the  Lord  ;  and  when  they  Hfted  up  their 
voice  with  the  trumpets  and  cymbals  and  instruments  of 
music,  and  praised  the  Lord,  saying^  For  he  is  good  :  for 
his  mercy  endureth  for  ever  :  that  then  the  house  was 

14  filled  with  a  cloud,  even  the  house  of  the  Lord,  [H]  so 
that  the  priests  could  not  stand  to  minister  by  reason  of  the 
cloud  :  for  the  glory  of  the  Lord  filled  the  house  of  God. 

6      Then  spake  Solomon,  The  Lord  hath  said  that  he 

2  would  dwell  in  the  thick  darkness.     But  I  have  built 

thee  an  house  of  habitation,  and  a  place  for  thee  to  dwell 

13*.  This  verse  takes  up  the  narrative  of  11*  and  describes  the 
burst  of  united  song  from  the  choirs  as  they  chanted  in  unison 
the  words  quoted  in  i  Chron.  xvi.  34  ff.  It  is  not  possible  to  say 
whether  the  intervening  verses  ii*'-i3*  are  due  to  the  chronicler 
himself  or  a  later  scribe. 

la'^,  14.  The  narrative  of  i  Kings  viii.  10'',  11  is  here  continued. 
The  glory-cloud  signified  the  presence  of  Jehovah  :  cf.  Ezek. 
xxxiii.  9  ff. 

vi.  i-ii.  This  passage  is  taken  almost  verbally  from  i  Kings 
viii.  12-21,  and  gives  the  words  in  which  Solomon  celebrates 
Jehovah's  favour. 

1,  2.  We  have  here  the  concise  words  of  the  king,  uttered  when 
the  glory-cloud  filled  the  Temple.  They  constitute  a  unique 
specimen  of  Hebrew  verse,  and  the  precise  form  of  the  poetic 
original  may  be  ascertained  by  the  aid  of  the  LXX  and  i  Kings 
viii.  12,  13  (cf.  '  Kings '  by  Skinner  in  Century  Bible,  in  loco). 
The  original,  as  restored  by  Cheyne,  presents  a  perfect  quatrain, 
and  is  thus  rendered  : — 

The  sun  has  Jehovah  set  in  the  heavens  ; 

He  (Himself)  has  resolved  to  dwell  in  thick  darkness  : 

Built  have  I  a  lofty  mansion  for  Thee, 

A  place  for  Thee  to  dwell  in   for  (all)  ages. 

The  utterance  is  a  pregnant  expression  of  the  king's  realization 
of  the  mystery  of  the  Being  of  Jehovah,  the  all-creative  God,  as 
well  as  the  condescension  displayed  in  His  self-limitation  to  dwell 


II   CHRONICLES  6.  3-7.     H  201 

in  for  ever.     And  the  king  turned  his  face,  and  blessed  3 
all  the  congregation  of  Israel :  and  all  the  congregation 
of  Israel  stood.     And  he  said,  Blessed  be  the  Lord,  the  4 
God  of  Israel,  which  spake  with  his  mouth  unto  David 
my  father,  and  hath  with  his  hands  fulfilled  it,  saying,  Since  5 
the  day  that  I  brought  forth  my  people  out  of  the  land  of 
Egypt,  I  chose  no  city  out  of  all  the  tribes  of  Israel  to 
build  an  house  in,  that  my  name  might  be  there  ;  neither 
chose  I  any  man  to  be  prince  over  my  people  Israel :  but  6 
I  have  chosen  Jerusalem,  that  my  name  might  be  there ; 
and  have  chosen  David  to  be  over  my  people  Israel.     Now  7 
it  was  in  the  heart  of  David  my  father  to  build  an  house  for 


amongst  men.  The  darkness  of  the  oracle  and  the  splendour  of 
the  cloud  alike  were  symbolical  of  the  Being  of  Jehovah — in 
whom  mystery  is  illuminated  with  radiant  glory. 

vi.  3-1 1.  SoIonion''s  Address  to  the  People.  The  king  summarizes 
the  steps  which  had  led  up  to  the  building  of  the  Temple.  The 
address  and  the  ensuing  prayers  are  in  perfect  harmony  with  the 
Deuteronomic  school  of  thought,  as  is  evident  from  the  style  and 
language  (cf.  Driver,  Introd.  pp.  200-203).  Hence  it  appears  that 
the  passage  is  not  intended  to  give  the  actual  words  of  Solomon, 
but  rather  to  express  facts  under  the  form  of  speeches.  This 
was  the  usual  custom  with  early  historians — e.  g.  Thucydides, 
Xenophon,  &c.  Consequently,  the  addresses  put  into  the  mouths 
of  early  characters  not  infrequently  reflect  the  circumstances  of 
the  historian's  own  age.  This  is  what  seems  to  have  occurred 
when  the  chronicler  re-edited  i  Kings.  He  has  added  phrases 
and  omitted  passages  in  accordance  with  the  special  aim  of  his 
work,  and  has  thus  taken  his  stand  in  line  with  other  ancient 
historians. 

5,  6.  The  text  here  is  more  correct  than  in  i  Kings  viii.  16,  as 
the  LXX  version  of  the  latter  proves ;  but  the  writers'  idea  in 
these  works  differs  from  that  of  2  Sam.  vii,  which  they  paraphrase. 
The  thought  of  Nathan  is  that  God  had  chosen  to  reveal  His 
presence  in  a  movable  tent  rather  than  in  a  house  :  here  the 
thought  is  that  God  had  terminated  a  transition  age  by  choosing 
the  city  of  Jerusalem  for  His  dwelling  and  the  house  of  David 
for  the  monarchy. 

7-9.  The  words  of  Nathan  are  still  the  original  of  the  statements 


202  II   CHRONICLES  6.  8-13.     H  Ch^ 

8  the  name  of  the  Lord,  the  God  of  Israel.  But  the  Lord 
said  unto  David  my  father,  Whereas  it  was  in  thine  heart 
to  build  an  house  for  my  name,  thou  didst  well  that  it 

9  was  in  thine  heart  :  nevertheless  thou  shalt  not  build  the 
house ;  but  thy  son  that  shall  come  forth  out  of  thy  loins, 

10  he  shall  build  the  house  for  my  name.  And  the  Lord 
hath  performed  his  word  that  he  spake ;  for  I  am  risen 
up  in  the  room  of  David  my  father,  and  sit  on  the  throne 
of  Israel,  as  the  Lord  promised,  and  have  built  the  house 

11  for  the  name  of  the  Lord,  the  God  of  Israel.  And  there 
have  I  set  the  ark,  wherein  is  the  covenant  of  the  Lord, 
which  he  made  with  the  children  of  Israel. 

12  And  he  stood  before  the  altar  of  the  Lord  in  the 
presence  of  all  the  congregation  of  Israel,  and  spread 

13  forth  his  hands  :  [Ch^]  (for  Solomon  had  made  a  brasen 
scaffold,  of  five  cubits  long,  and  five  cubits  broad,  and 
three  cubits  high,  and  had  set  it  in  the  midst  of  the 
court ;  and  upon  it  he  stood,  and  kneeled  down  upon  his 
knees  before  all  the  congregation  of  Israel,  and  spread 


made  here,  but  they  are  interpreted  in  the  light  of  the  subsequent 
building  of  the  Temple  under  divine  sanction. 

11.  Cf.  note  on  v.  lo. 

{b)  vi.  14-42.  Solomons  Dedicatoty  Prayer.  The  passage  is 
again  a  close  reproduction  of  the  parallel  passage  in  i  Kings  viii. 
22-53,  except  at  the  close  ;  verses  40-42,  however,  differ  entirely 
from  the  earlier  record.  Solomon  stands  before  the  altar  with 
hands  outstretched;  he  proclaims  Jehovah's  fulfilment  of  His 
promise  to  David,  pleads  for  continued  blessing,  and  entreats  God 
to  ever  turn  a  listening  ear  to  prayers  that  rise  in  the  Temple. 

12.  he  stood:  the  usual,  though  not  invariable,  attitude  of 
prayer  :  cf.  Exod.  ix.  29,  and  2  Chron.  vi.  13. 

spread  forth  his  hands:  a  common  ancient  accompaniment 
of  prayer. 

13.  The  whole  verse  is  peculiar  to  our  narrative.  It  describes 
the  king's  attitude  in  delivering  the  official  dedicatory  prayer  from 
the  brazen  scaffold  in  the  sight  of  the  worshipping  multitudes. 


II   CHRONICLES  6.  14-19.     Ch^  H  203 

forth  his  hands  toward  heaven  :)  [H]  and   he  said^  O  14 
Lord,  the  God  of  Israel,  there  is  no  God  hke  thee,  in  the 
heaven,  or  in  the  earth  ;  who  keepest  covenant  and  mercy 
with  thy  servants,  that  walk  before  thee  with  all  their 
heart  :  who  hast  kept  with  thy  servant  David  my  father  15 
that  which  thou   didst  promise  him :   yea,  thou  spakest 
with  thy  mouth,  and  hast  fulfilled  it  with  thine  hand,  as  it 
is  this  day.     Now  therefore,  O  Lord,  the  God  of  Israel,  16 
keep  with  thy  servant  David  my  father  that  which  thou 
hast  promised  him,  saying.  There  shall  not  fail  thee  a 
man  in  my  sight  to  sit  on  the  throne  of  Israel ;  if  only 
thy  children  take  heed  to  their  way,  to  walk  in  my  law  as 
thou  hast  walked  before  me.     Now  therefore,  O  Lord,  17 
the  God  of  Israel,  let  thy  word  be  verified,  which  thou 
spakest  unto  thy  servant  David.     But  will  God  in  very  18 
deed  dwell  with  men  on  the  earth  ?  behold,  heaven  and 
the  heaven  of  heavens  cannot  contain  thee ;  how  much 
less  this  house  which  I  have  builded !   Yet  have  thou  19 

14-1*7.  Solomon  acknowledges  the  fulfilment  of  the  uncon- 
ditioned portion  of  the  divine  promise,  and  prays  that  the 
conditional  part  may  also  be  fulfilled.  The  kingdom  has  been 
established  and  the  Temple  built,  but  the  blessing  of  God  is 
essential  for  the  future  of  the  dynast3\ 

14.  who  keepest  covenant :  the  attribute  of  a  personal  deity. 
that  v/alk  before  thee  with  all  their  heart :    the  phrase 
denotes  utter  sincerity. 

16.  in  my  law  :  a  slight,  but  significant,  variation  from  the 
original. 

vi.  18-21.  The  king  asKS  that  the  intercourse  of  prayer  ma}'  be 
a  genuine  experience  to  his  people. 

18.  dwell  with  men  on  the  earth:  Solomon  gives  utterance 
to  the  thought  of  the  transcendence  of  the  divine  Being  ;  God  is 
recognized  as  the  omnipresent,  personal  Spirit ;  and  awe  and 
w^onder  surround  the  fact  that  the  Temple  should  be  the  trysting- 
place  between  the  Deity  and  man. 

heaven  and  the  heaven  of  heavens :  a  phrase  expressive  of 
the  immensity  of  God's  dwelling-place. 


204  II   CHRONICLES  6.  20-34.     H 

respect  unto  the  prayer  of  thy  servant,  and  to  his 
suppHcation,  O  Lord  my  God,  to  hearken  unto  the  cry 
and  to  the  prayer  which  thy  servant  prayeth  before  thee : 

20  that  thine  eyes  may  be  open  toward  this  house  day  and 
night,  even  toward  the  place  whereof  thou  hast  said  that 
thou  wouldest  put  thy  name  there ;  to  hearken  unto  the 
prayer  which  thy  servant  shall  pray  toward  this  place. 

21  And  hearken  thou  to  the  supplications  of  thy  servant, 
and  of  thy  people  Israel,  when  they  shall  pray  toward 
this  place :  yea,  hear  thou  from  thy  dwelling  place,  even 

22  from  heaven ;  and  when  thou  hearest,  forgive.  If  a  man 
sin  against  his  neighbour,  and  an  oath  be  laid  upon  him  to 
cause  him  to  swear,  and  he  come  a;id  swear  before  thine 

23  altar  in  this  house :  then  hear  thou  from  heaven,  and  do, 
and  judge  thy  servants,  requiting  the  wicked,  to  bring 
his  way  upon  his  own  head ;  and  justifying  the  righteous, 

24  to  give  him  according  to  his  righteousness.  And  if  thy 
people  Israel  be  smitten  down  before  the  enemy,  because 
they  have  sinned  against  thee ;  and  shall  turn  again  and 

20.  put  thy  name  there.  In  Semitic  usage  the  name  stood  for 
far  more  than  a  mere  appellative  ;  indeed  the  expressions  'name,' 
'face,'  'presence,'  'glory,'  are  interchangeable  terms  and 
practically  denote  Jehovah  Himself.  The  term  'the  Name'  came, 
however,  to  be  specially  connected  with  the  worship  of  Jehovah 
and  with  the  Temple. 

pray   toward  this  place :    i.  e.   in   view  of  the   reality   of 
prayer,  of  which  the  Temple  is  the  reminder  and  the  pledge. 

21.  thy  dwelliixg-  place,  even.  .  .  heaven:  echoes  the  thought 
of  verse  18. 

when  thou  hearest,  forg-ive:    the  two  actions  are  rightly 
regarded  as  inseparable. 

vi.  22-42.  Solomon  proceeds  to  plead  for  the  divine  response 
to  particular  cases  of  supplication. 

22.  23.  The  first  case  is  one  of  an  appeal  to  Jehovah  where  no 
ordinary  proof  of  innocence  is  obtainable  :  cf.  Num.  v.  5,  &c. 

24,  25.  The  next  case  is  that  of  military  disaster  due  to  national 
sin.     The  reference  to  the  Exile  is  only  apparent,  not  real. 


II  CHRONICLES  6.  25-31.     H  205 

confess  thy  name,  and  pray  and  make  supplication  before 
theeinthishouse:  then  hear  thou  from  heaven,  and  forgive  25 
the  sin  of  thy   people    Israel,   and    bring   them   again 
unto  the  land  which  thou  gavest  to  them  and  to  their 
fathers.     When  the  heaven  is  shut  up,  and  there  is  no  26 
rain,  because  they  have  sinned  against  thee ;  if  they  pray 
toward  this  place,  and  confess  thy  name,  and  turn  from 
their  sin,  when  thou  dost  afflict  them  :  then  hear  thou  in  27 
heaven,  and  forgive  the  sin  of  thy  servants,  and  of  thy  people 
Israel,  when  thou  teachest  them  the  good  way  wherein  they 
should  walk ;  and  send  rain  upon  thy  land,  which  thou 
hast  given  to  thy  people  for  an  inheritance.     If  there  be  28 
in  the  land  famine,  if  there   be  pestilence,  if  there  be 
blasting  or  mildew,  locust  or  caterpiller ;  if  their  enemies 
besiege  them  in  the  land  of  their  cities  ;  whatsoever  plague 
or  whatsoever  sickness  there  be;  what  prayer  and  sup-  29 
plication  soever  be  made  by  any  man,  or  by  all  thy  people 
Israel,  which  shall  know  every  man  his  own  plague  and 
his  own  sorrow,  and  shall  spread  forth  his  hands  toward 
this  house :  then  hear  thou  from  heaven   thy   dwelling  30 
place,  and  forgive,  and  render  unto  every  man  according 
to  all  his  ways,  whose  heart  thou  knowest :  (for  thou,  even 
thou  only,  knowest  the  hearts  of  the  children  of  men ;) 
that  they  may  fear  thee,  to  walk  in  thy  ways,  so  long  as  31 
they  live  in  the  land  which  thou  gavest  unto  our  fathers. 

26,  27.  The  third  case  is  that  of  drought. 

when  thou  dost  afftict :  the  text  should  be  emended  with 
LXX  and  i  Kings,  to  read  thus  rather  than  'because  thou 
answerest  them,'  as  R.  V.  marg, 

vi.  28-31.     FuHher  Cases  of  Trouble. 

28.  in  the  land  of  their  cities :  Heb.  '  gates ' ;  LXX  gives 
'  the  enemy  before  their  cities.'  The  true  reading  occurs  in 
I  Kings  viii.  37. 

29.  every  man  his  own  plague :  the  phrase  is  meant  to  cover 
all  calamities  not  yet  specified. 


2o6  II    CHRONICLES  6.  32-38.     H 

32  Moreover  concerning  the  stranger,  that  is  not  of  thy 
people  Israel,  when  he  shall  come  from  a  far  country  for 
thy  great  name's  sake,  and  thy  mighty  hand,  and  thy 
stretched   out  arm ;   when   they  shall   come   and   pray 

33  toward  this  house :  then  hear  thou  from  heaven,  even 
from  thy  dwelling  place,  and  do  according  to  all  that  the 
stranger  calleth  to  thee  for ;  that  all  the  peoples  of  the 
earth  may  know  thy  name,  and  fear  thee,  as  doth  thy 
people  Israel,  and  that  they  may  know  that  this  house 

34  which  I  have  built  is  called  by  thy  name.  If  thy  people 
go  out  to  battle  against  their  enemies,  by  whatsoever  way 
thou  shalt  send  them,  and  they  pray  unto  thee  toward 
this  city  which  thou  hast  chosen,  and  the  house  which  I 

35  have  built  for  thy  name  :  then  hear  thou  from  heaven 
their  prayer  and  their  supplication,  and  maintain  their 

36  cause.  If  they  sin  against  thee,  (for  there  is  no  man  that 
sinneth  not,)  and  thou  be  angry  with  them,  and  deliver 
them  to  the  enemy,  so  that  they  carry  them  away  captive 

37  unto  a  land  far  off  or  near ;  yet  if  they  shall  bethink 
themselves  in  the  land  whither  they  are  carried  captive, 
and  turn  again,  and  make  supplication  unto  thee  in  the 
land  of  their  captivity,  saying.  We  have  sinned,  we  have 

38  done  perversely,  and  have  dealt  wickedly  ;  if  they  return 
unto  thee  with  all  their  heart  and  with  all  their  soul  in  the 

vi.  32,  33.    The  Case  of  the  Naturalized  Alien. 

33.  called  toy  thy  name  :  literally  'thy  name  is  called  upon  this 
house.' 

vi.  34,  35-  Prayer  fo}'  Military  Triumph.  To  discover  here  a 
reference  to  the  post-exilic  period  is  far-fetched.  Solomon  con- 
ceives the  possible  rather  than  reviews  the  actual, 

34.  toward  this  city :  the  custom  of  praying  with  the  face 
towards  Jerusalem  was  regarded  by  the  chronicler  as  pre-exilic. 

vi.  36-39.     Prayers  of  Captives. 

36.  no  man  that  sinneth  not:  the  possibility  of  erring  is 
recognized  as  inherently  human. 


II   CHRONICLES  6.  39—7.  i.     H  Ch        207 

land  of  their  captivity,  whither  they  have  carried  them 
captive,  and  pray  toward  their  land,  which  thou  gavest 
unto  their  fathers,  and  the  city  which  thou  hast  chosen, 
and  toward  the  house  which  I  have  built  for  thy  name : 
then  hear  thou  from  heaven,  even  from  thy  dwelling  place,  39 
their  prayer  and  their  supplications,  and  maintain  their 
cause  ;  and  forgive  thy  people  which  have  sinned  against 
thee.     Now,  O  my  God,  let,  I  beseech  thee,  thine  eyes  be  40 
open,  and  let  thine  ears  be  attent,  unto  the  prayer  that  is 
made  in  this  place.     [Ch]  Now  therefore  arise,  O  Lord  41 
God,  into  thy  resting  place,  thou,  and  the  ark  of  thy 
strength :  let  thy  priests,  O  Lord  God,  be  clothed  with 
salvation,  and  let  thy  saints  rejoice  in  goodness.     O  Lord  42 
God,  turn  not  away  the  face  of  thine  anointed  :  remember 
the  mercies  of  David  thy  servant. 

Now  when  Solomon  had  made  an  end  of  praying,  the  7 

40-43.  The  conclusion  of  Solomon's  prayer  differs  entirely 
from  that  recorded  in  i  Kings  viii,  where  the  prayer  terminates 
with  a  reference  to  the  close  relation  of  the  covenant  people  to 
Jehovah.  This  is  appropriate  enough  ;  but  the  curious  differences 
between  the  Hebrew  text  and  the  LXX,  in  this  passage,  point  to 
early  uncertainties  in  the  text.  The  concluding  petitions,  as  given 
by  the  chronicler,  bear  the  marks  of  originality.  No  more  fitting 
close  is  possible  than  to  take  up  the  opening  thought  and  plead 
with  Jehovah  to  make  the  shrine  His  dwelling-place  while  re- 
membering the  pious  deeds  of  David. 

Verses  41,  42  are  really  a  mutilated  rendering  of  Ps.  cxxxii. 
8-10  ;  but  this  affords  no  indication  of  authenticity,  for  it  is  still 
uncertain  whether  the  Psalm  is  the  original  or  the  recension  of 
our  passage,  while  no  agreement  has  been  reached  as  to  whether 
the  Psalm  is  pre-exilic  or  post-exilic.  On  the  whole  the  balance 
of  proof  favours  the  assumption  that  the  chronicler  has  the 
original  reading. 

(c)  vii.  i-io.     The  Dedicatory  Sacrifices. 

vii.  1-3.  Immediately  on  the  conclusion  of  Solomon's  prayer 
Jehovah  gave  a  visible  proof  of  His  favour.  Fire  descended  from 
heaven  and  consumed  the  sacrifices,  while  the  glory  of  the  Lord 
filled  the  Temple.     The  priests  were  unable  to  enter  the  Temple, 


2o8  II    CHRONICLES  7.  2-6.     Ch  H  Ch 

fire  came  down  from  heaven,  and  consumed  the  burnt 
offering  and  the  sacrifices ;  and  the  glory  of  the  Lord 

2  filled  the  house.  And  the  priests  could  not  enter  into  the 
house  of  the  Lord,  because  the  glory  of  the  Lord  filled 

3  the  Lord's  house.  And  all  the  children  of  Israel  looked 
on,  when  the  fire  came  down,  and  the  glory  of  the  Lord 
was  upon  the  house ;  and  they  bowed  themselves  with 
their  faces  to  the  ground  upon  the  pavement,  and 
worshipped,  and  gave  thanks  unto  the  Lord,  saying^  For 

4  he  is  good ;  for  his  mercy  endweth  for  ever.  [H]  Then 
the  king  and  all  the  people  ofi'ered  sacrifice  before  the 

5  Lord.  And  king  Solomon  offered  a  sacrifice  of  twenty 
and  two  thousand  oxen,  and  an  hundred  and  twenty 
thousand   sheep.      So   the   king    and    all    the    people 

6  dedicated  the  house  of  God.     [Ch]  And  the  priests  stood, 

where  the  glory  shone,  but  the  multitudes  without  worshipped 
God  in  reverent  act  and  in  praise. 

Attempts  have  been  made  to  repudiate  the  genuineness  of  this 
passage  on  the  grounds  that  it  is  not  found  in  r  Kings  and  that 
it  contains  certain  inconsistencies.  But  whether  the  narrative  be 
derived  from  the  common  source  of  Kings  and  Chronicles  or 
only  from  tradition,  it  is  in  perfect  harmony  with  the  context, 
and  may  be  credited.  We  hold,  with  Keil,  that  it  was  the 
dominantly  prophetic  interest  of  the  author  of  Kings  that  led  him 
to  omit  to  mention  this  second  confirmation  of  the  divine  accept- 
ance of  the  Temple,  while  he  gave  prominence  to  the  royal 
blessing  that  followed  ;  whereas  it  was  the  eminently  Levitic 
interest  of  the  chronicler  that  led  him  to  instance  the  renewed 
hallowing  of  the  national  sanctuary  while  passing  over  the  blessing. 

1.  fire  came  down  from  heaven  :  fire  was  a  common  symbol 
of  the  divine  presence.  The  presence  of  the  cloud  and  the  glory 
has  already  been  mentioned  in  verses  13,  14  ;  but  we  have  here 
the  fuller  manifestation  of  Jehovah's  favour. 

vii.  4-10.  After  the  descent  of  the  fire  from  heaven,  Solomon 
probably  uttered  the  blessing  upon  the  people  given  in  i  Kings  viii. 
54-61  ;  and  then  the  great  festival  terminated  with  sacrifices  and 
worship. 

5.  dedicated  the  house  of  God :  the  rare  word  here  used  gives 
the  title  Hminukkdh^  which  is  applied  to  the  Feast  of  Dedications, 
of  which  the  observance  dates  from  the  time  of  Judas  Maccabaeus, 


II   CHRONICLES  7.  7-9.     Ch  H  209 

according    to    their    offices;     the    Levites    also    with 
instruments  of  music  of  the  Lord,  which  David  the  king 
had  made  to  give  thanks  unto  the  Lord,  for  his  mercy 
enduretk  for  ever,  when  David  praised  by  their  ministry ; 
and  the  priests  sounded  trumpets  before  them  ;  and  all 
Israel   stood.     [H]    Moreover    Solomon    hallowed   the  7 
middle  of  the  court  that  was  before   the  house  of  the 
Lord  ;  for  there  he  offered  the  burnt  offerings,  and  the 
fat  of  the  peace  offerings  :  because  the  brasen  altar  which 
Solomon  had  made  was  not  able  to  receive  the  burnt 
offering,  and  the  meal  offering,  and  the  fat.     So  Solomon  8 
held  the  feast  at  that  time  seven  days,  and  all  Israel  with 
him,  a  very  great  congregation,  from  the  entering  in  of 
Hamath  unto  the  brook  of  Egypt.     And  on  the  eighth  9 
day  they   held  a  solemn   assembly :   for  they  kept   the 


6.  This  verse  is  peculiar  to  the  chronicler,  and  has  been  added 
in  perfect  harmony  with  his  consuming  interest  in  questions  of 
Levitic  ritual.  It  describes  how  the  dedicatory  sacrifices  were 
followed  by  a  service  of  song. 

7.  Solomon  hallowed  the  middle  of  the  court.  The  vastness 
of  the  offerings  necessitated  the  temporary  setting  apart  of  a  whole 
section  of  the  court  for  the  use  of  the  sacrificing  priests,  seeing 
that  the  brazen  altar  was  inadequate.  Two  kinds  of  sacrifices  are 
singled  out  for  mention — the  burnt  offering",  which  was  the 
sacrifice  of  the  entire  animal,  and  the  peace  offering',  which  was 
limited  to  the  burning  of  the  fat.  The  meal  offering  is  omitted  : 
cf.  I  Kings  viii.  64. 

8.  held  the  feast :  cf.  note  on  verse  3. 

seven  days  :  this  is  evidently  correct.  The  author  of  Kings 
has  so  confused  his  narrative  as  to  make  it  fourteen  days. 

the  entering"  in  of  Hamath  :  cf.  note  on  i  Chron.  xiii.  5. 

the  brook  of  Egypt:  i.e.  the  Wady-el  Arlsh,  about  fifty 
miles  south-west  of  Gaza  ;  it  formed  the  traditional  southern  limit 
of  Hebrew  territory. 

9.  on  the  eig^hth  day.  The  duration  of  the  dedication  festival 
is  in  accord  with  the  custom  prevailing  in  the  period  reflected  in 
Lev.  xxiii.  36  (which  is  usually  regarded  as  post-exilic),  and 
departs  from  the  regulations  of  Dcut.  xvi.   13-15  (which  refer  to 


2IO  II   CHRONICLES  7.  10-14.     H  Ch 

dedication  of  the  altar  seven  days,  and  the  feast  seven 

10  days.  And  on  the  three  and  twentieth  day  of  the  seventh 
month  he  sent  the  people  away  unto  their  tents,  joyful 
and  glad  of  heart  for  the  goodness  that  the  Lord  had 
shewed  unto  David,  and  to  Solomon,  and  to  Israel  his 
people. 

11  Thus  Solomon  finished  the  house  of  the  Lord,  and 
the  king's  house  :  and  all  that  came  into  Solomon's  heart 
to  make  in  the  house  of  the  Lord,  and  in  his  own  house, 

12  he  prosperously  effected.  And  the  Lord  appeared  to 
Solomon  by  night,  and  said  unto  him,  I  have  heard  thy 
prayer,  and  have  chosen  this  place  to  myself  for  an  house 

13  of  sacrifice.  [Ch]  If  I  shut  up  heaven  that  there  be  no 
rain,  or  if  I  command  the  locust  to  devour  the  land,  or  if 

14  I  send  pestilence  among  my  people  ;  if  my  people,  which 
are  called  by  my  name,  shall  humble  themselves,  and 

the  pre-exilic  days).     On  the  eighth  day  the  people,  instead  of 
departing  to  their  homes,  hold  a  solemn  festival. 

10.  on  the  three  and  twentieth  day :  in  accordance  with 
verse  9  the  people  only  return  home  after  the  completion  of  the 
eight  days'  festival. 

{d)  vii.  11-22.  The  Divine  Response.  In  the  night  following  the 
conclusion  of  the  festival  Jehovah  appeared  a  second  time  to 
Solomon  in  a  dream,  and  assured  him  that  his  prayer  should  be 
answered.  The  chronicler  found  the  material  for  this  narrative 
in  I  Kings  viii.  1-9,  where  it  forms  a  sequel  to  the  events  which 
precede  it.  It  is  full  of  Deuteronomic  expressions,  and  was, 
therefore,  probably  put  into  its  present  linguistic  form  by  a  post- 
exilic  writer.  To  attribute  the  closing  verses,  however,  to  a  later 
editor,  who  wished  to  explain  the  overthrow  of  Jerusalem,  is 
unwarrantable,  unless  one  is  prepared  to  repudiate  a  divine 
guidance  in  history. 

12.  hy  night:  presumably  in  a  dream. 

The  section  from  verse  12'',  'and  have  chosen  this  place,*  to 
verse  le**,  is  an  insertion  of  the  chronicler's.  It  summarizes  the 
royal  petitions  of  the  prayer  of  dedication  and  promises  an  answer 
to  them  on  the  condition  already  mentioned  to  Solomon.  The 
narrative  of  i  Kings  viii  is  resumed  at  verse  16. 


II    CHRONICLES  7.  15-21.     Ch  H  211 

pray,  and  seek  my  face,  and  turn  from  their  wicked  ways  ; 
then  will  I  hear  from  heaven,  and  will  forgive  their  sin, 
and  will  heal  their  land.     Now  mine  eyes  shall  be  open,  15 
and  mine  ears  attent,  unto  the  prayer  that  is  made  in  this 
place.   [H]  Fornowhave  I  chosen  and  hallowed  this  house,  16 
that  my  name  may  be  there  for  ever  :  and  mine  eyes  and 
mine  heart  shall  be  there  perpetually.     And  as  for  thee,  17 
if  thou  wilt  walk  before  me  as  David  thy  father  walked, 
and  do  according  to  all  that  I  have  commanded  thee, 
and  wilt  keep  my  statutes  and  my  judgements ;  then  I  18 
will  establish  the  throne  of  thy  kingdom,  according  as  I 
covenanted  with  David  thy  father,  saying,  There  shall  not 
fail  thee  a  man  to  be  ruler  in  Israel.     But  if  ye  turn  away,  19 
and  forsake  my  statutes  and  my  commandments  which  I 
have  set  before  you,  and  shall  go  and  serve  other  gods,  and 
worship  them  :  then  will  I  pluck  them  up  by  the  roots  20 
out  of  my  land  which  I  have  given  them  ;  and  this  house, 
which  I  have  hallowed  for  my  name,  will  I  cast  out  of  my 
sight,  and  I  will  make  it  a  proverb  and  a  byword  among 
all  peoples.     And  this  house,  which  is  so  high,  every  one  21 
that  passeth  by  it  shall  be  astonished,  and  shall  say,  Why 
hath  the  Lord  done  thus   unto  this  land,  and  to  this 


17,  18.  Jehovah  renews  His  promise  to  estabhsh  the  dynasty 
so  long  as  it  remains  loyal  to  Him. 

19,  20.  The  change  from  the  singular  'thou'  of  the  preceding 
verses  to  the  plural  '  you  '  and  *  them  '  in  these  two  verses  is 
remarkable.  A  solemn  warning  is  given  as  to  the  inevitable 
results  of  indulging  the  fatal  tendency  of  the  people  to  idolatry. 
It  is  not  improbable  that  Solomon  had  already  begun  to  manifest 
laxity  in  this  respect  through  his  marriage  alliances. 

21.  this  house,  which  is  so  high:  this  reading  is  preferable 
to  the  parallel  reading  in  i  Kings  ix,  8. 

shall  he  astonished :  the  inevitable  results  of  disloyalty  to 
Jehovah  should  cause  amazement  among  the  heathen.  The  thought 
of  verses  21,  22  is  closely  parallel  to  Deut.  xxix.  24-29,  and  is 
frequently  found  in  the  later  prophets. 

P    2 


212         II  CHRONICLES  7.  22-8.  2.     H  Ch 

22  house  ?  And  they  shall  answer,  Because  they  forsook  the 
Lord,  the  God  of  their  fathers,  which  brought  them  forth 
out  of  the  land  of  Egypt,  and  laid  hold  on  other  gods, 
and  worshipped  them,  and  served  them :  therefore  hath 
he  brought  all  this  evil  upon  them. 

8  And  it  came  to  pass  at  the  end  of  twenty  years,  wherein 
Solomon  had  built  the  house  of  the  Lord,  [Ch]  and  his 

2  own  house,  that  the  cities  which  Huram  had  given  to 
Solomon,  Solomon  built  them,  and  caused  the  children  of 
Israel  to  dwell  there. 

(5)  viii.  Impenal  Organisation. 
The  outstanding  achievement  of  Solomon's  reign  was  un- 
doubtedly the  building  of  the  Temple  ;  hence  the  chronicler,  even 
apart  from  his  pronounced  leaning  to  Levitical  interests,  would 
naturally  devote  his  main  space  to  the  details  of  its  construction 
and  dedication.  In  the  present  chapter  he  follov^'^s  the  author  of 
I  Kings  (cf.  I  Kings  ix,  x-xi,  xvii-xxviii),  grouping  together 
various  facts  concerning  matters  of  imperial  organization.  These 
facts  were  probably  extracted  by  the  earlier  historian  from  the 
annals  of  Solomon,  and  have  been  edited  by  the  author  of  Chronicles 
in  a  way  which  implies  the  accessibility  of  other  sources  of  in- 
formation. 

viii.  1-6.   Foriiftcation  of  Certain  Cities. 

1.  at  the  end  of  twenty  years :  the  construction  of  the  Temple 
occupied  seven  years,  that  of  the  royal  palace  thirteen  years  (cf. 
I  Kings  vi.  38,  vii.  i). 

2.  the  cities  which  Huram  had  given  to  Solomon  :  we  have 
no  record  elsewhere  of  a  gift  of  cities  made  by  Huram  (i.e.  Hiram) 
to  Solomon,  although  there  is  no  reason  why  such  a  gift  should 
not  have  been  a  part  of  the  friendly  relationship  of  these  monarchs. 
But  the  remarkable  fact  to  notice  here  is  that  the  parallel 
passage  in  i  Kings  ix.  11  speaks  of  Solomon  as  giving  'twenty 
cities  in  the  land  of  Galilee '  to  Hiram,  and  that  the  context, 
while  describing  Hiram's  discontent  with  the  ceded  cities,  states 
that  Hiram  sent  to  Solomon  a  sum  of  sixty  talents  of  gold  upon 
their  receipt.  Unless  the  chronicler's  words  refer  to  an  instance 
of  which  we  know  nothing,  he  has  mistaken  and  misrepresented 
a  transaction  in  which  Solomon  parted  with  a  tract  of  unimportant 
territory  for  a  monetary  consideration  ;  and  such  a  misrepresenta- 
tion is  readily  explained  by  the  chronicler's  exaggerated  estimate 
of  the  golden  days  of  his  country's  histor3'. 


II   CHRONICLES  8.  3-7.     Ch  H  213 

And  Solomon  went  to  Hamath-zobah,  and  prevailed  3 
against  it.     [H]  And  he  built  Tadmor  in  the  wilderness,  4 
and  all  the  store  cities,  which  he  built  in  Hamath.     Also  5 
he   built   Beth-horon   the   upper,  and    Beth-horon    the 
nether,  fenced  cities,  with  walls,  gates,  and   bars ;   and  6 
Baalath,  and  all  the  store  cities  that  Solomon  had,  and 
all  the  cities  for  his  chariots,  and  the  cities  for  his  horse- 
men, and  all  that  Solomon  desired  to  build  for  his  pleasure 
in  Jerusalem,  and  in  Lebanon,  and  in  all  the  land  of  his 
dominion.     As  for  all  the  people  that  were  left  of  the  7 
Hittites,  and  the  Amorites,  and  the  Perizzites,  and  the 


3.  Hamath-zobah :  Zobah  is  a  state  of  undiscovered  site,  but 
it  probably  lay  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Emesa,  between  Damascus 
and  Hamath.  In  Assyrian  inscriptions  the  city  is  called  Subutu  : 
cf.  note  on  i  Chron.  xviii.  4  and  9.  There  is  reason  to  doubt  the 
integrity  of  the  text  in  this  place,  and  considerable  obscurity  hangs 
over  its  reference  to  Solomon's  campaign  against  Hamath-zobah 
(or  Hamath-of-Zobah). 

4.  Tadmor  in  the  wilderness  :  Tadmur  is  the  modern  name 
of  the  great  city  between  Damascus  and  the  Euphrates  known  to 
the  Greeks  as  Palmyra,  and  this  city  existed  in  the  days  of  the 
chronicler,  but  not  in  Solomon's  time.  Evidently  the  chronicler 
misread  the  text  of  his  original  and  thought  Tadmur  was  alluded 
to.  But  the  whole  context  applies  to  cities  of  Judah  (cf.  verse  5), 
and  a  reference  to  i  Kings  ix.  18  shows  that  the  original  read 
'  Tamar  in  the  wilderness,'  i.  e.  a  border  town  of  Judah  lying  some- 
where near  the  south-west  extremity  of  the  Dead  Sea. 

store  cities,  which  he  built  in  Hamath  :  the  name  of  the 
northern  Aramaean  state  has  probably  crept  in  owing  to  the  error 
in  verse  4,  and  shoujd  be  corrected  by  i  Kings  ix.  19. 

5.  Beth-horon.  Solomon  fortified  these  twin  cities  on  the 
great  northern  route  from  Jerusalem  to  its  port  of  Joppa  :  cf.  note 
on  I  Chron.  vii.  24. 

6.  Baalath  :  an  unknown  city. 

in  Lebanon :  we  have  no  information  of  Solomon's  possessions 
in  Lebanon.  They  must  have  been  connected  with  his  timber- 
cutting  or  mining  operations. 

viii.  7-ir.  Sohmon  s  Forced  Labonr.  The  statement  of  verse  7 
is  abruptly  introduced.  It  declares  that  forced  labour  was  exacted 
from  the  alien  Canaanitish  remnants,  whereas  the  liberties  of  the 


2T4        II   CHRONICLES  8.  8-12.     H  Ch  Ch^ 

8  Hivites,and  the  Jebusites,  which  were  not  of  Israel;  of  their 
children  that  were  left  after  them  in  the  land,  whom  the 
children  of  Israel  consumed  not,  of  them  did  Solomon 

9  raise  a  levy  of  bondservants,  unto  this  day.  But  of  the 
children  of  Israel  did  Solomon  make  no  servants  for  his 
work ;  but  they  were  men  of  war,  and  chief  of  his  captains, 

10  and  rulers  of  his  chariots  and  of  his  horsemen.  And 
these  were  the  chief  officers  of  king  Solomon,  even 
two  hundred  and  fifty,  that  bare  rule  over  the  people. 

11  [Ch]  And  Solomon  brought  up  the  daughter  of  Pharaoh 
out  of  the  city  of  David  unto  the  house  that  he  had  built 
for  her  :  for  he  said.  My  wife  shall  not  dwell  in  the  house 
of  David  king  of  Israel,  because  the  places  are  holy, 
whereunto  the  ark  of  the  Lord  hath  come. 

12  [Ch'^]  Then  Solomon  offered  burnt  offerings  unto  the 

Hebrews  were  duly  respected.  The  accuracy  of  this  statement 
only  holds  good  for  a  limited  period,  for  we  read  in  i  Kings  v.  13 
and  xii.  4  that  forced  labour  was  also  demanded  of  Israelites. 

8.  whom  the  children  of  Israel  consumed  not :  a  quite 
characteristic  softening  of  the  phrase  of  the  original,  *  whom  the 
children  of  Israel  were  not  able  utterly  to  destroy.' 

raise  a  levy :  i.  e.  bands  of  compulsory  labourers. 

unto  this  day :  the  author  was  reading  back  from  his  own 
day,  when  forced  labour  was  demanded  of  none  but  aliens,  and  is 
noting  how  such  labour  originated  under  Solomon. 

9.  chief  of  his  captains  :  read,  with  LXX  and  i  Kings,  'his 
princes  and  his  captains.'  The  posts  of  honour,  mainly  military, 
were  assigned  to  Israelites.  The  word  used  for  '  captain  '  literally 
means  '  the  third  man,'  and  seems  to  have  come  into  use  from  the 
fact  that  the  chariot  carried  a  driver  and  a  combatant  in  addition 
to  the  'captain.' 

10.  two  hundred  and  fifty  :  i  Kings  gives  550. 

11.  Solomon's  preparation  of  a  separate  house  for  his  Egyptian 
consort  from  a  religious  scruple  as  to  the  legitimacy  of  her 
residence  in  the  precincts  of  the  Temple  mount,  now  hallowed 
by  the  Ark,  is  even  more  abruptly  introduced  than  in  i  Kings, 
seeing  that  the  chronicler  has  nowhere  mentioned  the  king's 
Egyptian  marriage. 

viii.  12-16.  Annual  Sacrifices,    Our  author  has  largely  amplified 


II   CHRONICLES  8.  13-17.     Ch"  Ch  H       215 

Lord  on  the  altar  of  the  Lord,  which  he  had  built  before 
the   porch,  even   as   the   duty   of  every   day   required,  13 
offering  according  to  the  commandment  of  Moses,  on  the 
sabbaths,  and  on  the  new  moons,  and  on  the  set  feasts, 
three  times  in  the  year,  even  in  the  feast  of  unleavened 
bread,  and  in  the  feast  of  weeks,  and  in  the  feast  of 
tabernacles.     [Ch]  And  he  appointed,  according  to  the  14 
ordinance  of  David  his  father,  the  courses  of  the  priests 
to  their  service,  and  the  Levites  to  their  charges,  to  praise, 
and  to  minister  before  the  priests,  as  the  duty  of  every  day 
required :  the  doorkeepers  also  by  their  courses  at  every 
gate:  for  so  had  David  the  man  of  God  commanded. 
And  they  departed  not  from  the  commandment  of  the  15 
king  unto  the  priests  and  Levites  concerning  any  matter, 
or   concerning   the    treasures.     Now    all    the    work    of  16 
Solomon  was  prepared  unto  the  day  of  the  foundation  of 
the  house  of  the  Lord,  and  until  it  was  finished.     So  the 
house  of  the  Lord  was  perfected. 

[H]  Then  went  Solomon  to  Ezion-geber,  and  to  Eloth,  17 

the  brief  statement  of  i  Kings  ix.  25,  giving  such  details  of  the 
royal  sacrifices  as  display  a  close  familiarity  with  the  Deuteronomic 
requirements  :  cf.  Lev.  xxiii.  37. 

viii.  12,  13.  The  great  religious  festivals  and  the  daily  sacrifices 
were  all  duly  ordered. 

12.  the  altar  of  the  LORD:  mentioned  here  for  the  first  time 
as  being  built  by  Solomon. 

viii.  14-16.  The  Temple  service  was  established  upon  the  lines 
already  determined  by  David  :  cf.  i  Chron.  xxiii-xxvi. 

16.  unto  the  day  of  the  foundation :  read  *  from  the  day  .  .  .' 
with  LXX,  Vulg.,  Syriac. 

viii.  17-18.  The  Expedition  to  Ophir.  The  friendship  of  Solomon's 
Tyrian  ally,  Huram,  was  displayed  on  sea  as  well  as  on  land.  By 
the  aid  of  his  shipwrights  and  seamen  Solomon  was  able  to 
construct  a  fleet  which  traded  with  the  land  of  Ophir  and  brought 
thence  a  vast  sum  of  the  famous  gold. 

17.  Ezion-g'eber  :  a  town  of  undetermined  site.     Probably  it 


2i6  II   CHRONICLES  8.  i8— 9.  i.     H 

1 8  on  the  sea  shore  in  the  land  of  Edom.  And  Huram 
sent  him  by  the  hands  of  his  servants  ships,  and  servants 
that  had  knowledge  of  the  sea ;  and  they  came  with  the 
servants  of  Solomon  to  Ophir,  and  fetched  from  thence 
four  hundred  and  fifty  talents  of  gold,  and  brought  them 
to  king  Solomon. 

9      And  when  the  queen  of  Sheba  heard  of  the  fame 

should  be  identified  with  'Ain-el-Ghudyan,  a  spot  now  fifteen  miles 
inland  above  the  head  of  the  Red  Sea.  The  constant  filling  up  of 
the  coast-line  by  the  alluvial  river-deposits  makes  this  position 
credible.  In  Solomon's  day  it  was  a  port  of  some  importance. 
Near  by  lay  Eloth,  the  modern  'Akaba.  It  is  situated  at  the  head 
of  the  north-east  arm  of  the  Red  Sea.  These  ports  are  said  to 
have  been  situated  in  tlie  land  of  Edom,  which  at  that  time  was 
insecurely  held  by  Solomon  (cf.  i  Kings  xi),  although  he  evidently 
had  a  firm  hold  of  the  great  trade-route  between  the  capital  and 
the  southern  ports. 

18.  Ophir :  according  to  the  most  probable  theory  (that  of 
Glaser)  Ophir  lay  on  the  east  coast  of  Arabia,  where  there  was 
an  ancient  gold-producing  district.  The  return  voyage  around  the 
entire  peninsula  of  Arabia  undoubtedly  would  require  the  three 
years  allotted  thereto  in  i  Kings. 

four  hundred  and  fifty  talents  :  over  two  and  a  half  millions 
sterling. 

(6)  ix.     The  Queen  of  Sheba  and  Solomon" s  Wealth. 

(a)  ix.  I-I2.  Visit  of  the  Queen  of  Sheba.  The  chronicler  observes 
a  perfectly  natural  sequence,  as  does  his  earlier  authority  (i  Kings 
X.  1-13),  in  proceeding  from  the  narrative  of  Solomon's  power, 
his  building  achievements,  and  his  imperial  revenue,  to  an  account 
of  his  magnificence  and  far-spread  renown.  Hence  he  introduces 
here  a  remarkable  illustration  of  his  fame.  The  queen  of  Sheba, 
doubtless  bound  to  the  Hebrew  monarch  by  strong  commercial 
interests,  visits  the  king  in  his  capital.  Her  express  desire  is  to 
learn  the  truth  of  the  reports  concerning  his  wisdom,  but  we  may 
surmise  that  political  and  commercial  considerations  were  not 
absent.  This  is  all  the  more  probable  if  the  connexion  between 
Sheba  and  Ophir  be  such  as  it  has  been  held  to  be  (cf.  note  on 
verse  i). 

1.  the  queen  of  Sheba.  In  his  recent  researches  into  the 
history  and  geography  of  Arabia,  Glaser  has  made  discoveries 
which  seem  to  establish  the  belief  that  Sheba  had  very  important 
connexions  with  the  eastern  Arabian  goldfields  of  Ophir  (cf. 
Glaser,  Skizse,  ii.  357  ff.).     To  reach  Ophir  Solomon's  fleet  must 


II   CHRONICLES  9.  2-5.     H  217 

of  Solomon,  she   came  to   prove   Solomon   with   hard 
questions   at   Jerusalem,    with   a  very  great   train,  and 
camels  that  bare  spices,  and  gold  in  abundance,  and 
precious  stones :  and  when  she  was  come  to  Solomon, 
she  communed  with  him  of  all  that  was  in  her  heart. 
And  Solomon  told  her  all  her  questions  :  and  there  was  2 
not  any  thing  hid  from  Solomon  which  he  told  her  not. 
And  when  the  queen  of  Sheba  had  seen  the  wisdom  of  3 
Solomon,  and  the  house  that  he  had  built,  and  the  meat  4 
of  his  table,  and  the  sitting  of  his  servants,  and  the  atten- 
dance of  his  ministers,  and  their  apparel ;  his  cupbearers 
also,  and  their  apparel ;  and  his  ascent  by  which  he  went 
up  unto  the  house  of  the  Lord  ;  there  was  no  more  spirit 
in  her.     And  she  said  to  the  king,  It  was  a  true  report  5 

have  sailed  round  the  south-west  of  Arabia,  where  lay  the  great 
commercial  power  of  Sheba.  There  are  still  extensive  early 
ruins  at  Marib,  the  ancient  capital,  but  excavations  have  hitherto 
been  impossible  owing  to  the  unsettled  nature  of  the  interior.  Of 
its  early  history  little  is  known.  It  certainly  flourished  by 
1000  B.  c,  and  about  550  B.  c.  its  priest-kings  attained  to  the 
dominant  power  in  Arabia  by  overthrowing  the  early  Minean 
kingdom,  which  extended  as  far  as  Edom  and  Media  (cf.  Hilpricht, 
Explorations  in  Bible  Lands). 

with  hard  questions  :  i.  e.  problems  and  catch-questions— 
a  display  of  Oriental  quickness  of  thought  and  dialectic  is  meant. 

with  a  very  great  train  :  her  retinue  was  a  fitting  proof  of 
the  greatness  of  her  empire,  and  all  the  natural  products  of  south- 
west Arabia  were  brought  in  abundance. 

2.  there  was  not  any  thing-  hid  from  Solomon  :  the  king 
proved  able  to  meet  all  tests  of  his  wisdom. 

4.  the  sitting  of  his  servants :  probably  refers  to  the  mess  of 
the  royal  household. 

the  attendance  of  his  ministers :  i.  e.  the  ability  of  the 
court  functionaries. 

his  ascent:  the  Hebrew  text  has  'his  upper  chambers,'  but 
one  must  read  'his  ascent'  with  i  Kings,  LXX,  Vulg.,  and  Syr. 

there  was  no  more  spirit  in  her  :  i.  e.  she  was  overwhelmed 
with  amazement  and  admiration. 

5,  6.  The  queen  of  Sheba  declares  that  Solomon's  greatness 
and  wisdom  exceeded  all  that  report  had  told. 


2i8  II   CHRONICLES  9.  6-12.     H 

that  I  heard  in  mine  own  land  of  thine  acts,  and  of  thy 

6  wisdom.  Howbeit  I  believed  not  their  words,  until  I 
came,  and  mine  eyes  had  seen  it :  and,  behold,  the  half 
of  the  greatness  of  thy  wisdom  was  not  told  me  :  thou 

7  exceedest  the  fame  that  I  heard.  Happy  are  thy  men, 
and  happy  are  these  thy  servants,  which  stand  continually 

8  before  thee,  and  hear  thy  wisdom.  Blessed  be  the  Lord 
thy  God,  which  delighted  in  thee,  to  set  thee  on  his 
throne,  to  be  king  for  the  Lord  thy  God  :  because  thy 
God  loved  Israel,  to  establish  them  for  ever,  therefore 
made  he  thee  king  over  them,  to  do  judgement  and 

9  justice.  And  she  gave  the  king  an  hundred  and  twenty 
talents  of  gold,  and  spices  in  great  abundance,  and 
precious  stones  :  neither  was  there  any  such  spice  as  the 

10  queen  of  Sheba  gave  to  king  Solomon.  And  the  servants 
also  of  Huram,  and  the  servants  of  Solomon,  which 
brought   gold   from    Ophir,    brought    algum    trees   and 

ir  precious  stones.  And  the  king  made  of  the  algum 
trees  terraces  for  the  house  of  the  Lord,  and  for  the 
king's  house,  and  harps  and  psalteries  for  the  singers : 
and  there  were  none  such  seen  before  in  the  land  of 

12  Judah.  And  king  Solomon  gave  to  the  queen  of  Sheba 
all  her  desire,  whatsoever  she  asked,  beside  that  which 
she  had  brought  unto  the  king.  So  she  turned,  and 
went  to  her  own  land,  she  and  her  servants. 

8.  on  his  throne,  to  be  kin^  for  the  IiORD  thy  God:    an 

expansion  due  to  the  chronicler. 

9.  The  queen's  gifts  were  on  a  scale  of  Oriental  magnificence, 
the  gold  alone  being  equal  to  seven  and  a  half  millions  sterling. 

ix.  ID,  II.  These  verses  occupy  the  same  position  as  in  i  Kings, 
but  they  are  evidently  misplaced  :  a  natural  sequence  would  have 
placed  them  at  the  close  of  ch.  viii. 

10.  algvim  trees  :  cf.  note  on  2  Chron.  ii.  8. 

11.  terraces:  i  Kings  x.  12  reads  'pillars.' 

12.  beside  that  which  she  had  brought  unto  the  king :  this 


II   CHRONICLES  9.  13-16.     H  219 

Now  the  weight  of  gold  that  came  to  Solomon  in  one  13 
year  was  six  hundred  and  threescore  and  six  talents  of 
gold ;   beside  that  which  the  chapmen  and  merchants  14 
brought :  and  all  the  kings  of  Arabia  and  the  governors 
of  the  country  brought  gold  and  silver  to  Solomon.     And  15 
king  Solomon  made  two  hundred  targets  of  beaten  gold : 
six  hundred  shekels  of  beaten  gold  went  to  one  target. 
And  he  made  three  hundred  shields  of  beaten  gold ;  three  16 
hundred  shekels  of  gold  went  to  one  shield :   and  the 
king  put  them  in  the  house  of  the  forest  of  Lebanon. 

can  scarcely  be  correct ;  i  Kings  reads  'beside  that  which  Solomon 
gave  her.' 

(6)  ix.  13-21.  The  Imperial  Exchequer.  The  narrative  concern- 
ing the  imperial  revenue  which  closes  ch.  viii  is  now  taken  up 
again.     It  follows  i  Kings  x.  14-22. 

13.  in  one  year :  it  can  scarcely  be  implied  that  the  enormous 
sum  of  ;[^, 100,000,  as  an  annual  income  in  gold  alone,  represents 
the  average  maintained  throughout  Solomon's  reign. 

14.  chapmen:  the  text  is  admittedly  corrupt.  The  word 
rendered  'chapmen'  literally  means  'spies.*  The  rendering  of 
the  LXX,  the  'overseers,'  is  evidently  due  to  an  attempt  to  make 
the  best  of  an  unintelligible  phrase.  Kittel  would  read  'cities' 
with  the  Syriac  and  render  '  besides  that  which  the  cities  and  the 
merchants  brought.' 

all  the  king's  of  Arahia :  after  the  example  of  the  queen  of 
Sheba— or  possibly  as  the  result  of  the  suzerainty  of  Solomon. 
governors :  LXX  renders  '  satraps.' 

ix.  15,  16.  The  Golden  Shields.  These  were  merely  ornamental 
shields  for  use  on  occasions  of  royal  display  (cf.  xii.  11). 

The  target  was  the  full-length  shield  and  was  about  four  times 
the  size  of  the  small  round  shield.  The  amount  of  gold  to  a  shield 
(300  shekels)  is  stated  in  i  Kings  to  have  been  'three  pound,' 
i.  e.  150  or  180  shekels,  which  is  more  likely  to  be  correct. 

16.  the  house  of  the  forest  of  Lebanon :  a  great  hall  in  the 
royal  palace  of  Solomon.  It  was  evidently  used  as  an  armoury. 
The  number  of  pillars  of  cedar-wood  used  in  its  construction  led 
to  its  popular  designation.  It  is  approximately  described  in 
I  Kings  vii.  2-5,  where  the  dimensions  are  given  as  1 75  x  88  x  53  feet. 
The  roof  seems  to  have  rested  upon  three  rows  of  fifteen  pillars. 


220  II   CHRONICLES  9.  17-21.     H 

17  Moreover  the  king  made  a  great  throne  of  ivory,  and 

18  overlaid  it  with  pure  gold.  And  there  were  six  steps  to 
the  throne,  with  a  footstool  of  gold,  which  were  fastened 
to  the  throne,  and  stays  on  either  side  by  the  place  of 

19  the  seat,  and  two  lions  standing  beside  the  stays.  And 
twelve  Hons  stood  there  on  the  one  side  and  on  the  other 
upon  the  six  steps :  there  was  not  the  like  made  in  any 

20  kingdom.  And  all  king  Solomon's  drinking  vessels  were 
of  gold,  and  all  the  vessels  of  the  house  of  the  forest  of 
Lebanon  were  of  pure  gold  :  silver  was  nothing  accounted 

21  of  in  the  days  of  Solomon.  For  the  king  had  ships  that 
went  to  Tarshish  with  the  servants  of  Huram  :  once 
every  three  years  came  the  ships  of  Tarshish,  bringing 

ix.  17-19.  The  Ivory  Throne.  The  ivory  and  gold  were  probably 
used  for  veneering  and  plating  the  throne  ;  they  do  not  necessarily 
represent  the  solid  substance  of  the  structure. 

18.  a  footstool  of  g'old,  .  .  .  fastened  to  the  throne:  the 
Hebrew  word  for  'footstool'  (\riD,  kebesh)  was  almost  certainly 
in  the  original  '  lamb '  (m3,  kebes).  This  original,  '  lamb,'  seems 
to  have  been  a  scribe's  substitute  for  an  earlier  reading,  'calf 
("jJ?,  'egel),  which  he  altered  through  a  dislike  to  the  heathen 
symbolism  of  the  calf.  Probably  'calf  originally  stood  in  the 
parallel  passage  in  i  Kings  x.  19,  as  it,  indeed,  still  does  in  the 
LXX  of  that  passage  ;  but  through  a  similar  dislike  some  early 
scribe  changed  it  to  'round'  (b'Oi',  'agol),  giving  the  reading  'the 
top  of  the  throne  was  round  behind.'  When  the  word  'calf  had 
passed  through  this  series  of  changes  into  '  footstool,'  then  other 
words  had  to  be  changed  to  suit  the  context, 
stays :  the  form  was  that  of  an  armchair. 

ix.  20,  21.     Further  Imperial  Commerce. 

20.  silver  was  nothing  acconnted  of:  the  abundance  of  gold 
led  to  the  depreciation  of  silver. 

21.  ships  that  went  to  Tarshish:  the  apparent  meaning  is 
that  this  fleet  made  a  triennial  voyage  to  Tartessus,  an  ancient 
Spanish  town  on  the  Guadalquiver.  This  meaning  cannot  be  got 
out  of  I  Kings  X.  22,  which  simply  speaks  of  'Tarshish  ships,'  i.e. 
a  sea-going  fleet  such  as  the  Phoenicians  used  for  their  voyages 
to  Tarshish.  The  narrative  of  i  Kings  has  reference  to  the 
expeditions  to  Ophir,  and  the  chronicler  may  have  mistaken  the 
meaning.     The  merchandise  brought  by  the  fleet,  '  gold,  and  silver, 


II   CHRONICLES  9.  22-29.     H  Ch^  H  Ch-      221 

gold,  and  silver,  ivory,  and  apes,  and  peacocks.     So  king  22 
Solomon  exceeded  all  the  kings  of  the  earth  in  riches 
and  wisdom.     And  all  the  kings  of  the  earth  sought  the  23 
presence  of  Solomon,  to  hear  his  wisdom,  which  God 
had  put  in  his  heart.     And  they  brought  every  man  his  24 
present,  vessels  of  silver^  and  vessels  of  gold,  and  raiment, 
armour,  and  spices,  horses,  and  mules,  a  rate  year  by 
year.     [Ch^]  And  Solomon  had  four  thousand  stalls  for  25 
horses   and   chariots,    and   twelve   thousand   horsemen, 
which  he  bestowed  in  the  chariot  cities,  and  with  the 
king  at  Jerusalem.     And   he  ruled  over  all  the  kings  26 
from  the  River  even  unto  the  land  of  the  Philistines,  and 
to  the  border  of  Egypt.     [H]  And  the  king  made  silver  27 
to  be  in  Jerusalem  as  stones,  and  cedars  made  he  to  be 
as  the  sycomore  trees  that  are  in  the  lowland,  for  abun- 
dance.    And  they  brought  horses  for  Solomon  out  of  28 
Egypt,  and  out  of  all  lands. 

[Ch^]  Now  the  rest  of  the  acts  of  Solomon,  first  and  29 

ivory,  and  apes,  and  peacocks,'  is  the  produce  of  Arabia,  not  Africa, 
and  would  be  the  natural  freight  of  the  Ophir  fleet,  and  quite  as 
unnatural  a  freight  from  Spain.  For '  ivory'  the  LXX  reads '  ivory 
teeth.' 

(c)  ix.  22-28.  Imperial  Magnificence.  The  empire  of  Solomon's 
reign  of  peace  is  here  stated  to  have  been  world-wide.  All  rulers 
bring  tribute  to  the  Hebrew  monarch,  whose  majesty  and  wisdom 
are  famed  throughout  all  lands  and  whose  reign  was  one  of  ceaseless 
progress,  unbroken  by  the  clash  of  arms. 

25.  four  thousand  stalls  for  horses  and  chariots :  the  diver- 
gence from  I  Kings  x.  26  should  be  noted.  Moreover,  we  seem 
to  have  here  a  doublet  to  2  Chron.  i.  14  ff.,  although  due  to  a  later 
source. 

26.  from  the  River  :  i.  e.  the  Euphrates. 

27.  in  the  lowland:  i.e.  the  Shephelah  :  cf.  note  on  r  Chron. 
xxvii.  28. 

28.  out  of  Eg3rpt:  cf.  notes  on  2  Chron.  i.  16,  17. 

{d)  ix.  29-31.     Summary  of  SoIomon''s  Reign. 

29.  For  the  sources  referred  to  cf.  Introd.  §  iv. 


222        II   CHRONICLES  9.  30— 10.  i.     Ch^  H 

last,  are  they  not  written  in  the  history  of  Nathan  the 
prophet,  and  in  the  prophecy  of  Ahijah  the  Shilonite, 
and  in  the  visions  of  Iddo  the  seer  concerning  Jeroboam 

30  the  son  of  Nebat  ?     [H]  And  Solomon  reigned  in  Jeru- 

31  salem  over  all  Israel  forty  years.  And  Solomon  slept 
with  his  fathers,  and  he  was  buried  in  the  city  of  David 
his  father :  and  Rehoboam  his  son  reigned  in  his  stead. 

10      And  Rehoboam  went  to  Shechem  :  for  all  Israel  were 

30-31.  The  passage  is  taken  from  i  Kings  xi.  42,  43.  The 
chronicler  omits  the  account  of  Solomon's  idolatries  and  political 
upheavals  which  occupies  i  Kings  xi,  and  represents  the  reign  as 
one  of  undimmed  splendour  ending  in  a  blaze  of  glory.  This  is 
in  perfect  harmony  with  his  eclectic  aims. 

FOURTH  FART 

x-xxxvi.  History  of  Judah  from  Solomon  to  the  Captivity. 

The  fourth  section  of  the  Book  of  the  Chronicles  comprises 
2  Chron.  x-xxxvi.  It  is  concerned  with  the  history  of  the 
southern  kingdom  from  the  death  of  Solomon  to  the  Captivity. 
The  annals  of  the  kings  of  Judah  are  given  with  much  greater 
fullness  than  in  the  Book  of  Kings,  where  the  history  of  both 
kingdoms  is  narrated.  Of  the  events  which  transpired  under  the 
earlier  kings,  Rehoboam,  Abijah,  Asa,  and  Jehoshaphat,  the 
narrative  of  the  Chronicles  is  specially  full.  And,  throughout, 
the  chronicler  is  at  pains  to  show  how  the  exigencies  of  the 
national  fortunes  were  connected  with  the  national  attitude 
towards  Jehovah.  Fidelity  to  the  law  of  God  leads  to  prosperity 
and  victory,  whereas  a  lapse  into  apostasy  leads  to  failure  and 
defeat.  As  the  narrative  proceeds  we  see  the  people  given  over 
so  utterly  to  idolatry  under  Ahaz  and  Manasseh  that  pious  efforts 
such  as  those  of  Hezekiah  and  Josiah  fail  to  recall  them  to  their 
earlier  fidelity  to  Jehovah,  and  the  inevitable  results  follow  in  the 
great  Exile.  The  curtain  falls  on  Judah's  national  independence, 
with  the  triumph  of  Chaldaea. 

(i)  x.  The  Revolt  of  the  Northern  Tribes. 
The  narrative  of  the  disruption  of  the  kingdom  has  been  taken, 
with  very  little  alteration,  from  the  same  source  as  i  Kings  xii. 
1-19.  It  is  cast  in  vivid  and  dramatic  language.  A  national 
assembly  has  been  convened  to  confirm  the  title  of  Solomon's 
successor.  During  the  proceedings  spokesmen  of  the  people  are 
put  forward  to  ask  for  the  abolition  of  forced  labour.     The  heir 


II   CHRONICLES  10.  2.     H  223 

come  to  Shechem  to  make  him  king.     And  it  came  to  2 
pass,  when  Jeroboam  the  son  of  Nebat  heard  of  it,  (for 
he  was  in  Egypt,  whither  he  had  fled  from  the  presence 
of  king  Solomon,)  that  Jeroboam  returned  out  of  Egypt. 


to  the  throne  promises  to  reply  in  three  days.  When  he  again 
meets  the  popular  representatives,  it  is  to  answer  them  according 
to  the  mad  counsel  of  his  young  companions,  in  direct  opposition 
to  the  advice  of  the  elder  statesmen.  This  autocratic  contempt 
of  the  popular  demand  is  followed  by  the  immediate  revolt  of  the 
northern  tribes.  The  official  taskmaster  is  stoned,  the  king  com- 
pelled to  save  his  life  in  flight,  and  Jeroboam  elected  to  the 
kingship  of  the  northern  confederacy.  It  is  the  house  of  Judah 
alone  that  remains  lo^'al  to  David's  line. 

It  is  at  this  point  that  the  chronicler  and  the  author  of  i  Kings 
diverge.  The  earlier  historian  displays  a  certain  sympathy  with 
the  northern  tribesmen,  or  at  least  expresses  no  strong  disapproval 
of  the  schism.  But  the  chronicler,  himself  a  Levite,  and  living 
centuries  after  the  obliteration  of  Israel  as  a  nation,  views  the 
revolt  from  the  standpoint  of  its  final  issues.  To  him  the  northern 
tribesmen  were  apostates  from  the  will  and  from  the  worship  of 
Jehovah,  rejected  and  destroyed  for  that  apostasy.  The  historic 
purpose  of  God  had,  nevertheless,  not  fallen  to  the  ground  ;  it  had 
worked  itself  out  through  the  southern  tribesmen  with  a  persis- 
tency which  not  even  the  Exile  could  withstand.  Hence  an  historian 
to  whom  the  divine  purpose  in  history  was  the  permanent  con- 
sideration must  limit  his  writings  to  the  record  of  the  experiences 
of  loyal  Judah  and  the  vicissitudes  of  its  history.  This  is  why  the 
northern  kings  are  ignored  after  Jeroboam  has  been  contemptuously 
dismissed,  and  all  interest  henceforth  centres  in  the  Davidic 
monarchy. 

1.  Kehoboam:  his  reign  should  be  dated  932-916  b.  c.  The 
new  monarch  was  arrogant  and  headstrong,  but  at  the  same  time 
he  lacked  energy  and  was  fundamentally  weak. 

Shechem  :  the  modern  Nablous,  on  the  north-east  slopes  of 
Mount  Gerizim.  From  early  days  it  was  regarded  as  a  sanctuary 
and  was  of  great  political  importance.  Lying  at  the  junction  of 
several  great  trade-routes,  it  is  to-day  a  busy  town  of  20,000 
inhabitants.  As  the  chief  sanctuary  of  the  northern  tribes  it  was 
thither  that  the  national  assembly,  '  all  Israel,'  was  summoned 
for  the  coronation  of  Rehoboam. 

2.  Jeroboam  the  son  of  Nehat:  Jeroboam  is  described  as  an 
Ephraimite  of  the  house  of  Nebat.  He  early  gave  proof  of  his 
unique  ability  and  rose  to  an  important  position  in  Solomon's  civil 
administration.     But  resenting,  probably,  the  royal  despotism,  and 


224  n   CHRONICLES  10.  3-9.     H 

3  And  they  sent  and  called  him ;  and  Jeroboam  and  all 

4  Israel  came,  and  they  spake  to  Rehoboam,  saying,  Thy 
father  made  our  yoke  grievous  :  now  therefore  make  thou 
the  grievous  service  of  thy  father,  and  his  heavy  yoke 
which  he  put  upon  us,  lighter,  and  we  will  serve  thee. 

5  And  he  said  unto  them.  Come  again  unto  me  after  three 

6  days.  And  the  people  departed.  And  king  Rehoboam 
took  counsel  with  the  old  men,  that  had  stood  before 
Solomon  his  father  while  he  yet  lived,  saying.  What 
counsel  give  ye  me  to  return  answer  to  this  people  ? 

7  And  they  spake  unto  him,  saying,  If  thou  be  kind  to 
this  people,  and  please  them,  and  speak  good  words  to 

8  them,  then  they  will  be  thy  servants  for  ever.  But  he 
forsook  the  counsel  of  the  old  men  which  they  had  given 
him,  and  took  counsel  with  the  young  men  that  were 

9  grown  up  with  him,  that  stood  before  him.  And  he  said 
unto  them.  What  counsel  give  ye,  that  we  may  return 
answer  to  this  people,  who  have  spoken  to  me,  saying, 

desirous  of  personal  advancement,  he  had  incurred  Solomon's  dis- 
pleasure and  had  fled  for  asylum  to  Shishak,  king  of  Eg3'pt. 
Already  his  ambitions  had  been  kindled  by  an  interview  with  the 
prophet  Ahijah  ;  and  on  Solomon's  death,  seeing  his  chance,  he 
returned  to  champion  the  people  in  their  demand  for  freedom  from 
forced  labour. 

4.  the  grievous  service  of  thy  father  :  evidently  Solomon's 
ambitious  architectural  schemes  had  weighed  heavily  on  the  people 
of  Israel  as  well  as  upon  the  alien  population.  The  deputation 
merely  requested  that  their  obligations  should  be  lightened  instead 
of  the  nation  being  ground  down  in  the  interests  of  an  inflated 
imperialism. 

5.  three  days:  Rehoboam  asked  for  time  to  consider  a  matter 
of  such  national  importance. 

6.  counsel  with  the  old  men :  Solomon's  tried  councillors 
advised  a  diplomatic  answer  which  should  appease  the  popular 
agitation  and  secure  the  royal  power. 

8.  the  yoving-  men  :  i.  e.  companions  of  his  own  age,  younger 
princes,  who  were  of  an  overweening  and  imperious  spirit,  and 
who  advised  him  to  treat  the  people  with  scorn. 


II   CHRONICLES  10.  10-16.     H  225 

Make  the  yoke  that  thy  father  did  put  upon  us  hghter  ? 
And  the  young  men  that  were  grown  up  with  him  spake  10 
unto  him,  saying,  Thus  shalt  thou  say  unto  the  people 
that  spake  unto  thee,  saying,  Thy  father  made  our  yoke 
heavy,  but  make  thou  it  Hghter  unto  us ;  thus  shalt  thou 
say  unto  them,  My  little  finger  is  thicker  than  my  father's 
loins.     And  now  whereas  my  father  did  lade  you  with  a  n 
heavy  yoke,  I  will  add  to  your  yoke  :  my  father  chastised 
you  with  whips,  but  I  will  chastise  you  with  scorpions. 
So  Jeroboam  and  all  the  people  came  to  Rehoboam  the  12 
third  day,  as  the  king  bade,  saying.  Come  to  me  again 
the  third  day.     And  the  king  answered  them  roughly  ;  13 
and  king  Rehoboam  forsook  the  counsel  of  the  old  men, 
and  spake  to  them  after  the  counsel  of  the  young  men,  14 
saying.  My  father  made  your  yoke  heavy,  but  I  will  add 
thereto:  my  father  chastised  you  with  whips,  but  I  will 
chastise  you  with  scorpions.     So  the  king  hearkened  not  15 
unto  the  people  ;  for  it  was  brought  about  of  God^  that 
the  Lord  might  establish  his  word,  which  he  spake  by 
the  hand  of  Ahijah  the  Shilonite  to  Jeroboam  the  son 
of  Nebat.      And   when   all   Israel   saw   that   the   king  16 
hearkened  not  unto  them,  the  people  answered  the  king, 
saying.  What  portion  have  we  in  David?   neither  have 

11.  I  will  chastise  you  with  scorpions:  a  sj'mbol  for  the 
severest  discipline;  the  word  suggests  an  instrument  of  flagellation. 

12-14.  Rehoboam  answers  the  deputation  according  to  the 
haughty  advice  of  the  younger  councillors. 

15.  it  was  brought  about  of  God  :  by  the  Hebrew  mind  there 
was  little  account  taken  of  second  causes.  The  guiding  hand  of 
God  was  seen  in  all  things  and  the  problem  of  the  origin  of  evil 
was  tacitl}'^  ignored. 

Ahijah  the  Shilonite  :  Ahijah,  a  native  of  Shiloh  (the  modern 
Seilun,  near  Bethel),  appeared  before  Jeroboam  in  the  capacity 
of  a  prophet  and  foretold  his  future  eminence.  The  incident  is 
not  recorded  by  the  chronicler,  but  cf,  i  Kings  xi.  26-40. 

16.  What  portion  have  we  in  David  ?     The  popular  response 

Q 


226  II    CHRONICLES  10.  17— 11.  i.     H 

we   inheritance   in    the   son   of  Jesse :    every   man   to 
your  tents,  O  Israel :  now  see  to  thine  own  house,  David. 

17  So  all  Israel  departed  unto  their  tents.  But  as  for  the 
children  of  Israel  that   dwelt  in   the  cities   of  Judah, 

18  Rehoboam  reigned  over  them.  Then  king  Rehoboam 
sent  Hadoram,  who  was  over  the  levy ;  and  the  children 
of  Israel  stoned  him  with  stones,  that  he  died.  And 
king  Rehoboam  made  speed  to  get  him  up  to  his  chariot, 

19  to  flee  to  Jerusalem.  So  Israel  rebelled  against  the  house 
of  David,  unto  this  day. 

11      And  when  Rehoboam  was   come  to   Jerusalem,  he 

was  a  defiance  of  the  authority  of  Rehoboam  ;  yet,  coupled  with 
it,  there  was  the  determination  to  effect  a  peaceful  revolution. 

to  your  tents,  O  Israel:  i.e. '  break  up  the  national  assembly.' 
The  cry  of  dismissal  is  in  poetic  form  and  displays  the  invariable 
parallelism  of  Hebrew  metre  : — 

'  What  have  we  of  portion  in  David  ! 
Yea,  no  inheritance  in  the  son  of  Jesse ! 
To  thy  tents,  O  Israel! 
Now,  see  to  thine  house,  O  David ! ' 

18.  Hadoram,  who  was  over  the  levy  :  the  folly  of  sending 
an  official  so  naturally  unpopular  is  manifest.  The  people  are 
infuriated  by  his  arrival  and  stone  him  to  death.  The  king 
himself  with  difficulty  escapes. 

19.  unto  this  day:  here  the  phrase  is  not  an  anachronism. 
The  revolt  was  final  and  absolute,  little  less  than  a  catastrophe  for 
the  royal  line  of  David. 

(2)  xi-xii.  Rehoboam'' s  Reign. 

The  chronicler  makes  no  attempt  to  give  a  chronological  account 
of  the  reign  of  Rehoboam.  He  merely  groups  the  incidents  of  the 
period,  arranging  them  primarily  with  a  view  to  their  religious  sig- 
nificance. The  material  is  in  the  main  distinct  from  that  of  i  Kings, 
from  which  he  merely  borrows  xii.  22-24  and  xiv.  25-31,  adding 
much  original  matter.  He  relates  the  preparation  of  Rehoboam 
to  recover  control  of  the  revolted  tribes  by  force  of  arms  and 
the  abandonment  of  the  attempt  at  the  bidding  of  the  prophet 
Shemaiah.  He  shows  us  that  the  rule  of  Jeroboam  was  by  no 
means  unanimously  accepted  by  the  northern  tribesmen,  of  whom 
many  migrated  to  Judah.      He  also  describes  Rehoboam's  settle- 


II   CHRONICLES  11.  2-5.     H  Ch  227 

assembled  the  house  of  Judah  and  Benjamin,  an  hundred 
and  fourscore  thousand  chosen  men,  which  were  warriors, 
to  fight  against  Israel,  to  bring  the  kingdom  again  to 
Rehoboam.     But  the  word  of  the  Lord  came  to  She-  2 
maiah  the  man  of  God,  saying.  Speak  unto  Rehoboam  3 
the  son  of  Solomon,  king  of  Judah,  and  to  all  Israel  in 
Judah  and  Benjamin,  saying.  Thus  saith  the  Lord,  Ye  4 
shall  not  go  up,  nor  fight  against  your  brethren  :  return 
every  man  to  his  house ;  for  this  thing  is  of  me.    So  they 
hearkened  unto  the  words  of  the  Lord,  and  returned 
from  going  against   Jeroboam.      [Ch]  And  Rehoboam  5 
dwelt  in  Jerusalem,  and  built  cities  for  defence  in  Judah. 

ment  of  the  affairs  of  the  kingdom,  his  lapse  into  idolatry,  and  his 
punishment  by  means  of  the  Egyptian  invasion. 

xi.  1-4.  A  Prophet  averts  Civil  War.  Rehoboam  immediately 
musters  the  full  fighting  force  of  the  southern  kingdom  to  reduce 
Jeroboam  ;  but  civil  war  is  temporarily  averted  by  the  message 
of  Shemaiah.  There  was,  however,  only  a  brief  period  of  peace, 
as  we  gather  from  the  statement  of  xii.  15  that  '  there  were  wars 
between  Rehoboam  and  Jeroboam  continually.' 

1.  Judah  and  Benjamin:  at  the  moment  of  disruption  only 
Judah  stood  loyal  to  Rehoboam  (cf  i  Kings  xii.  20)  ;  but  either 
Benjamin  threw  in  its  lot  with  the  southern  kingdom  very  soon 
or  else  we  have  here  a  post-exilic  record  of  the  ultimate  fusion  of 
Benjamin  with  Judah. 

2.  Shemaiah. :  a  prophet  who  performed  his  ministrations 
throughout  the  reign  of  Rehoboam.  Here  we  find  him  preventing 
civil  war.  In  xii.  5-7  he  delivers  Jehovah's  message  regarding 
the  invasion  of  Shishak.  And  in  xii.  15  he  is  named  as  the  royal 
historian  or  annalist. 

4.  this  thin^  is  of  me :  i.  e.  as  a  chastisement  for  the  apostasj- 
of  Solomon  and  the  arrogance  of  Rehoboam. 

xi.  5-12.  National  Fortifications.  In  view  of  the  unsettled  state 
of  the  southern  kingdom  and  of  the  threatening  attitude  which 
Egypt  seems  to  have  adopted  throughout  his  reign,  Rehoboam 
built  fifteen  fortress  cities  for  the  defence  of  his  country.  As 
these  cities  lay  either  on  the  main  roads  from  Jerusalem  to  Egypt 
or  on  the  western  hills  of  the  Judean  Shephelah,  and  none  of  them 
upon  the  northern  frontier  of  Judah,  thej'  vi'ere  evidently  fortified 
in  view  of  the  dangers  from  Egypt  and  not  against  northern  Israel. 

Q  2 


228  II    CHRONICLES  11.  6-10.     Ch 

;,  7  He  built  even  Beth-lehem,  and  Etam,  and  Tekoa,  and 

8  Beth-zur,  and  Soco,  and  Adullam,  and  Gath,  and  Mare- 

9  shah,  and  Ziph,  and  Adoraim,  and  Lachish,  and  Azekah, 
10  and  Zorah,  and  Aijalon,  and  Hebron,  which  are  in  Judah 


6.  Beth-lehem:  a  small  town  in  the  Judean  uplands  five  miles 
south-west  of  Jerusalem,  now  called  Beit-lahm.  Rehoboam  added 
its  fortifications. 

Etam :  a  town  which  seems  to  have  been  situated  near 
Solomon's  famous  gardens,  about  one  hour  south  of  Beth-lehem  ; 
it  is  probably  the  modern  'Ain  'Atan. 

Tekoa :  on  a  lofty  hill,  two  hours  south  of  Beth-lehem,  border- 
ing on  the  wilderness. 

*7.  Beth-ztir :  the  modern  Bet-Sur,  four  and  a  half  miles  north 
of  Hebron,  occupies  an  important  strategic  position  on  the  high 
road  from  Hebron  to  Jerusalem. 

Soco :  in  the  Shephelah,  now  represented  by  certain  ruins 
known  as  esh-Shuweikeh. 

Adullam:  probably  the  modern  'Id-el-Ma  in  the  east  Shephe- 
lah,  three  miles  south-east  of  Soco.  Extensive  ancient  ruins  occupy 
the  hillside,  and  caves  exist  near  the  summit. 

8.  Gath:  the  site  of  the  ancient  Philistine  city  of  this  name  has 
not  yet  been  identified.  Probably  the  chronicler  does  not  actually 
allude  to  this  city,  or  if  he  does  so  it  may  be  by  error,  for  the 
Philistine  Gath  had  its  own  Philistine  king  under  Solomon  (i  Kings 
ii.  39),  and  it  was  still  Philistine  in  the  days  of  Uzziah. 

Mareshah  :  the  Marissa  of  Josephus,  in  the  Shephelah  of 
Judah,  not  far  from  Eleutheropolis  (Beit-Jibrin).  It  was  the 
birthplace  of  the  prophet  Micah. 

Ziph :  identified  with  Tell-Zif,  eight  miles  south-east  of 
Hebron,  in  the  Judean  Shephelah. 

9.  Adoraim  :  the  modern  Dura,  five  miles  south-west  of  Hebron. 
]^achish :  on  a  site  now  called  Tell-el-Hesy,  where  excava- 
tions, commenced  by  Flinders  Petrie  in  1890,  reveal  an  ancient 
and  extensive  city  of  Amorite  origin.  It  is  twelve  miles  from  Eleu- 
theropolis in  the  Shephelah  and  is  the  furthest  city  in  the  direction 
of  Egypt  fortified  by  Rehoboam. 

Azekah :  another  town  in  the  Shephelah,  possibly  represented 
by  Bir-ez-Zag,  north  of  Soco. 

10.  S!orah :  if  the  town  in  the  Shephelah  be  meant,  it  is  the 
modern  Sar'a,  near  Beth-shemesh,  fourteen  miles  west  of  Jeru- 
salem ;  but  some  site  in  the  Negeb  may  possibly  be  intended,  as 
no  southern  fortresses  have  yet  been  named. 

Aijalon :  the  modern  Yalo,  on  the  edge  of  the  valley,  the 


II   CHRONICLES  11.  11-16.     Ch.  229 

and  in   Benjamin,   fenced  cities.     And  he  fortified  the  n 
strong  holds,  and  put  captains  in   them,  and  store   of 
victual,  and  oil  and  wine.     And  in  every  several  city  12 
he  put  shields  and  spears,  and  made  them  exceeding 
strong.     And  Judah  and  Benjamin   belonged   to  him. 
And  the  priests  and  the  Levites  that  were  in  all  Israel  13 
resorted  to  him  out  of  all  their  border.     For  the  Levites  14 
left  their  suburbs  and  their  possession,    and   came   to 
Judah  and  Jerusalem  :  for  Jeroboam  and  his  sons  cast 
them  off,  that  they  should  not  execute  the  priest's  office 
unto  the  Lord  :   and  he  appointed  him  priests  for  the  15 
high  places,  and  for  the  he-goats,  and  for  the   calves 
which  he  had  made.     And  after  them,   out  of  all  the  16 


Merj-Ibn-'Umar,  five  miles  from  the  lower  Beth  horon  and  fourteen 
from  Jerusalem. 

Hebron:  the  modern  el-Halil,  on  the  uplands  midway 
between  Jerusalem  and  Beer-sheba. 

xi.   13-17.    Immigrants  from.  Northern  Israel. 

13.  the  priests  and  the  Levites :  the  chronicler  naturally 
emphasizes  the  loyalty  of  his  own  order  to  Jehovah  and  the 
Temple. 

14.  for  Jerohoanx  and  his  sons  cast  them  off:  Jeroboam  had 
erected  his  own  sanctuaries  for  northern  Israel,  fearing  for  their 
loyalty  in  case  they  should  visit  the  legitimate  sanctuary  at 
Jerusalem,  and  had  placed  the  emblematic  calves  in  Beth-el  and 
Dan  as  symbols  of  Jehovah.  At  these  shrines  he  appointed  non- 
Levitic  priests ;  hence  the  priestlj'  migration  to  Jerusalem 
followed.  The  northern  kingdom  never  recovered  from  this 
apostasy. 

15.  the  high  places  :  the  illegitimate  shrines  erected  on  the 
hills  according  to  Canaanitish  custom. 

for  the  he-g-oats  :  A.  V.  '  for  the  devils '  ;  cf.  Lev.  xvii.  7. 
This  significance  of  the  word  is  due  to  contact  with  Egypt,  where 
the  worship  of  the  sacred  goat  was  prevalent. 

for  the  calves:  these  were  intended  to  be  symbolic  of  Jehovah  ; 
cf.  Exod.  xxxii.  4. 

16.  after  thexn  :  following  the  example  of  the  Levites,  numbers 
of  the  northern  clansmen  migrated  to  the  southern  kingdom 
owing  to  religious  causes. 


230  II   CHRONICLES  11.  17-23.     Ch 

tribes  of  Israel,  such  as  set  their  hearts  to  seek  the  Lord, 
the  God  of  Israel,  came  to  Jerusalem  to  sacrifice  unto 

17  the  Lord,  the  God  of  their  fathers.  So  they  strengthened 
the  kingdom  of  Judah,  and  made  Rehoboam  the  son  of 
Solomon  strong,  three  years  :  for  they  walked  three  years 

18  in  the  way  of  David  and  Solomon.  And  Rehoboam 
took  him  a  wife,  Mahalath  the  daughter  of  Jerimoth  the 
son  of  David,  a^id  of  Abihail  the  daughter  of  Eliab  the 

19  son  of  Jesse ;  and  she  bare  him  sons ;  Jeush,  and  She- 

20  mariah,  and  Zaham.  And  after  her  he  took  Maacah 
the  daughter  of  Absalom ;  and  she  bare  him  Abijah,  and 

21  Attai,  and  Ziza,  and  Shelomith.  And  Rehoboam  loved 
Maacah  the  daughter  of  Absalom  above  all  his  wives 
and  his  concubines  :  (for  he  took  eighteen  wives,  and 
threescore  concubines^  and  begat  twenty  and  eight  sons 

22  and  threescore  daughters.)  And  Rehoboam  appointed 
Abijah  the  son  of  Maacah  to  be  chief,  eve?i  the  prince 
among  his  brethren  :    for  he  was  minded  to  make  him 

23  king.     And  he  dealt  wisely,    and  dispersed  of  all  his 

17.  they  strengthened  the  kingdom  .  .  .  three  years:  the 
indignation  of  the  immigrants  against  Jeroboam's  innovations  only 
lasted  for  three  3'ears,  and  then  their  own  lo^'alty  to  Jehovah 
failed. 

xi.  18-23.    The  Royal  Family. 

18.  the  daughter  of  Jerimoth  :  so  LXX,  Vulg.,  &c.,  correctly. 
But  the  Hebrew  text  has  '  son  of  Jerimoth.'  Probably  we  have 
here  another  form  of  the  name  Ithream  ;  otherwise  Jerimoth 
must  be  a  son  of  one  of  David's  concubines.  With  LXX  and 
Vulg.  we  must  insert  the  conjunction  before  'Abihail'  and  read 
the  name  as  that  of  the  mother  of  Mahalath. 

20.  Maacah  the  daughter  of  Ahsalom :  i.  e.  the  grand- 
daughter;  cf.  2  Sam.  xiv.  27.  She  must  have  been  a  daughter 
of  Tamar,  who  married  Uriel  of  Gibeah.  Cf.  i  Kings  xv.  2  and 
2  Chron.  xiii.  2.  Her  eldest  son,  Abijah,  who  succeeded  to  the 
throne,  is  always  called  Abijam  in  i  Kings. 

21.  Rehoboam  did  his  best  to  rival  his  father  in  the  size  of  his 
harem,  and  strove  to  lead  his  sons  in  the  same  way. 

23.  dispersed  of  all  his  sons:  by  this  means  not  only  was 


II   CHRONICLES  12.  1-3.     Ch  H  Ch        231 

sons  throughout  all  the  lands  of  Judah  and  Benjamin, 
unto  every  fenced  city  :  and  he  gave  them  victual  in 
abundance.     And  he  sought  _/»/-  thevi  many  wives. 

And  it  came  to  pass,  when  the  kingdom  of  Rehoboam  12 
was  established,  and  he  was  strong,  that  he  forsook  the 
law  of  the  Lord,  and  all  Israel  with  him.     [H]  And  it  2 
came  to  pass  in  the  fifth  year  of  king  Rehoboam,  that 
Shishak   king   of   Egypt    came   up   against    Jerusalem, 
because  they  had  trespassed  against  the  Lord,  [Ch]  with  3 
twelve  hundred  chariots,  and  threescore  thousand  horse- 
men :  and  the  people  were  without  number  that  came 
with  him  out  of  Egypt ;  the  Lubim,  the  Sukkiim,  and 

provision  made  for  the  royal  princes  and  a  firmer  grasp  kept  upon 
the  outlying  districts,  but  also  the  danger  of  plots  within  the  royal 
family,  such  as  had  blighted  David's  reign,  was  avoided. 

xii.     Apostasy  and  Invasion. 

1.  lie  forsook  the  law  of  the  IiOBD  :  i.e.  he  lapsed  into 
idolatry.  In  this  verse  the  chronicler  indicates  the  underlying 
cause  of  the  subsequent  invasion.  It  is  a  characteristic  addition 
to  the  narrative  of  i  Kings  xiv  which  he  is  approaching,  due  to 
his  religious  reading  of  history.  Only  when  we  put  ourselves  in 
line  with  his  special  aims  as  an  historian  can  we  understand  the 
principle  of  selection  and  the  reason  of  the  additions  in  his  work. 

2.  Shishak  :  cf.  i  Kings  xiv.  25.  While  the  chronicler  has 
pointed  out  the  religious  grounds  for  this  national  chastisement, 
the  modern  student  will  not  fail  to  connect  it  also  with  the 
disruption,  Jeroboam  had  been  a  refugee  in  Shishak's  domains 
and  would  probably  instigate  his  patron  to  attack  Rehoboam.  The 
invasion  did  not  affect  northern  Israel,  although  it  is  probable  that 
immunity  was  only  secured  by  tribute.  In  the  temple  of  Amon  at 
Karnak  there  existed  a  list  of  towns  which  paid  tribute  to  Shishak, 
clearly  indicating  that  the  Judean  towns  paid  it  as  to  a  conqueror, 
whereas  the  Israelite  cities  paid  it  as  to  a  suzerain.  The  date  of 
this  first  serious  invasion  of  the  theocratic  kingdom  was  928  b.c. 
Shishak  probably  reigned  over  Egypt  from  950  to  928  B.C.  ;  he  is 
known  as  the  founder  of  the  twenty-second  dynasty, 

3.  Iiuhim  :  i.  e.  Libyans.  Shishak  {Soserik)  was  himself  a 
Libyan. 

Sukkiim  :  LXX,  '  Troglodytes '—  some  of  the  tribes  bordering 
on  Egypt,  otherwise  unknown. 


232  II    CHRONICLES  12.  4-9.     Ch  H 

4  the  Ethiopians.     And  he  took  the  fenced  cities  which 

5  pertained  to  Judah,  and  came  unto  Jerusalem.  Now 
Shemaiah  the  prophet  came  to  Rehoboam,  and  to  the 
princes  of  Judah,  that  were  gathered  together  to  Jerusalem 
because  of  Shishak,  and  said  unto  them,  Thus  saith  the 
Lord,  Ye  have  forsaken  me,  therefore  have  I  also  left 

6  you  in  the  hand  of  Shishak.  Then  the  princes  of  Israel 
and  the  king  humbled  themselves;  and  they  said,  The 

7  Lord  is  righteous.  And  when  the  Lord  saw  that  they 
humbled  themselves,  the  word  of  the  Lord  came  to 
Shemaiah,  saying,  They  have  humbled  themselves  ;  I  will 
not  destroy  them  :  but  I  will  grant  them  some  deliverance, 
and  my  wrath  shall  not  be  poured  out  upon  Jerusalem  by 

8  the  hand  of  Shishak.  Nevertheless  they  shall  be  his 
servants  ;  that  they  may  know  my  service,  and  the  service 

9  of  the  kingdoms  of  the  countries.  [H]  So  Shishak  king 
of  Egypt  came  up  against  Jerusalem,  and  took  away  the 
treasures  of  the  house  of  the  Lord,  and  the  treasures  of 
the  king's  house ;  he  took  all  away :  he  took  away  also 

4.  the  fenced  cities :  probably  including  many  of  those 
mentioned  in  xi.  6-10.  After  reducing  the  provincial  fortresses, 
he  marched  on  the  capital. 

5.  Shemaiali :  cf.  note  on  xi.  2.  He  is  here  called  '  the 
prophet'  ;  but  in  xi.  2  he  is  designated  by  the  simple,  earlier 
style  'the  man  of  God.*  His  message  proclaims  defeat  as  a 
punishment  for  apostasy. 

6.  humbled  themselves :  i.  e.  they  repented  and  returned  to 
their  loyalty  to  Jehovah.  They  admitted  the  justice  of  the 
chastisement  in  the  words  'Jehovah  is  righteous.' 

*7.  some  deliverance:  better,  as  in  the  margin,  'deliverance 
within  a  little  while.' 

my  wrath  shall  not  be  poured  out  :  an  expression  implying 
that  the  chastisement  should  stop  short  of  utter  destruction. 

8.  that  they  may  know  my  service  :  through  bitter  experience 
they  are  to  learn  the  hardness  of  forsaking  Jehovah  and  falling 
under  foreign  yoke. 

9.  against  Jerusalem:  evidently  Shishak  captured  and  sacked 
Jerusalem. 


II    CHRONICLES  12.  10-16.     H  Ch^  H  Ch^  H     233 

the  shields  of  gold  which  Solomon  had  made.     And  king  10 
Rehoboam   made   in  their   stead   shields  of  brass,  and 
committed  them  to  the  hands  of  the  captains  of  the  guard, 
that  kept  the  door  of  the  king's  house.     [Ch^]  And  it  was  1 1 
so,  that  as  oft  as  the  king  entered  into  the  house  of  the 
Lord,  the  guard  came  and  bare  them,  and  brought  them 
back  into  the  guard  chamber.     And  when  he  humbled  12 
himself,  the  wrath  of  the  Lord  turned  from  him,  that  he 
would   not   destroy   him   altogether  :  and   moreover   in 
Judah  there  were  good  things  fot^nd.     So  king  Rehoboam  13 
strengthened   himself  in   Jerusalem,    and   reigned  :   for 
[H]  Rehoboam  was  forty  and  one  years  old  when  he 
began   to   reign,   and   he   reigned    seventeen   years    in 
Jerusalem,  the  city  which  the  Lord  had  chosen  out  of 
all  the  tribes  of  Israel,  to  put  his  name  there :  and  his 
mother's  name  was  Naamah  the  Ammonitess.     And  he  14 
did  that  which  was  evil,  because  he  set  not  his  heart  to 
seek  the  Lord.     [Ch"]  Now  the  acts  of  Rehoboam,  first  15 
and  last,  are  they  not  written  in  the  histories  of  Shemaiah 
the  prophet  and  of  Iddo  the  seer,  after  the  manner  of 
genealogies  ?    And  there  were  wars  between  Rehoboam 
and  Jeroboam  [H]  continually.     And  Rehoboam  slept  16 


10.  captains  of  the  guard:  literally  'of  the  runners';  they 
were  the  king's  personal  body-guard. 

11.  Here  we  have  light  upon  the  use  to  which  the  golden 
shields  of  Solomon  were  put ;  but  we  learn  that  the  brazen  shields 
were  not  kept  in  the  house  of  the  forest  of  Lebanon. 

12.  in  Judah  there  were  good  things  found  :  Judah  was  still 
at  heart  loyal  to  Jehovah. 

13.  strengthened  himself:  regained  the  power  which  Shi- 
shak's  invasion  had  crippled. 

his  mother's  name  :  the  constant  mention  of  the  name  of 
the  queen-mothers  of  Judean  kings  imphes  that  their  influence  at 
court  was  large. 

15.  in  the  histories  ...  of  Iddo  :  cf.  Introd.  §  iv. 


234  11    CHRONICLES   13.  1-4.     H  Ch 

with  his  fathers,  and  was  buried  in  the  city  of  David  :  and 
Abijah  his  son  reigned  in  his  stead. 
13      In  the  eighteenth  year  of  king  Jeroboam  began  Abijah 

2  to  reign  over  Judah,  Three  years  reigned  he  in  Jerusalem : 
and  his  mother's  name  was  Micaiah  the  daughter  of  Uriel 
of  Gibeah.     And   there  was  war   between  Abijah  and 

3  Jeroboam.  [Ch]  And  Abijah  joined  battle  with  an  army 
of  valiant  men  of  war,  even  four  hundred  thousand  chosen 
men  :  and  Jeroboam  set  the  battle  in  array  against  him 
with  eight   hundred   thousand  chosen   men,   who    were 

4  mighty  men  of  valour.    And  Abijah  stood  up  upon  mount 

(3)  xiii.  Abijah's  Reign. 
Abijah's  reign  of  three  years  (916-914  b.  c.)  is  described  very 
summarily  by  the  author  of  i  Kings  xv.  1-8.  The  chronicler  adds 
a  vivid  and  detailed  account  of  the  war  against  Jeroboam,  in 
which  Abijah,  by  the  help  of  Jehovah,  inflicted  a  crushing  defeat 
upon  the  northern  army.  Evidently  there  were  other  sources  of 
information  than  canonical  Kings  at  his  disposal. 

1.  Abijah:  i  Kings  xv,  i,  &c.,  reads  'Abijam'  ;  both  forms  of 
the  name  were  probably  current. 

2.  his  mother's  name  was  Micaiah  :  in  LXX,  2  Chron.  xi.  20 
and  I  Kings  xv.  2,  it  is  given  as  Maacab,  which  must  be  read 
here  also. 

there  was  war:  the  chronicler  omits  to  transcribe  r  Kings 
XV.  3-6,  which  verses  seem  to  have  been  the  original  work  of  the 
compiler  of  Kings,  and  merely  inserts  the  closing  sentence  of 
verse  7.  He  then  proceeds  to  give  an  original  version  of  the 
great  campaign  between  north  and  south. 

xiii.  3-21.  War  ivith  Jeroboam.  In  this  campaign  the  chronicler 
found  precisely  the  material  he  desired  as  an  illustration  of  his 
philosophy  of  history.  All  the  facts  seemed  to  point  the  right 
moral  for  his  late  readers.  The  size  of  Jeroboam's  army  was 
double  that  of  Abijah's,  and  the  northern  king  marched  to  the 
battle  with  all  the  confidence  of  overwhelming  numbers.  But 
Abijah,  though  hopelessly  outnumbered,  was  quite  as  confident  as 
his  foe.  His  confidence,  however,  rose  from  the  consciousness  of 
fidelity  to  Jehovah  and  of  loyalty  to  the  law  and  the  Temple  ritual. 
And  in  the  issue,  after  a  temporary  uncertainty,  the  tide  of 
battle  was  turned  by  Jehovah  and  a  complete  victory  fell  to 
the  southern  arms. 

4.  mount  Zemaraim :   evidently  a  mountain  camping  ground 


II   CHRONICLES  13.  5-8.     Ch  235 

Zemaraim,  which  is  in  the  hill  country  of  Ephraim,  and 
said,  Hear  me,  O  Jeroboam  and  all  Israel ;   ought  ye  5 
not  to  know  that  the  Lord,  the  God  of  Israel,  gave 
the  kingdom  over   Israel   to  David   for   ever,  even   to 
him  and  to  his  sons  by  a  covenant  of  salt  ?     Yet  Jero-  6 
boam   the  son  of  Nebat,  the  servant  of  Solomon  the 
son  of  David,  rose  up,  and  rebelled   against  his   lord. 
And  there  were  gathered  unto  him  vain  men,  sons  of  7 
Belial,  which  strengthened  themselves  against  Rehoboam 
the  son  of  Solomon,  when    Rehoboam  was  young  and 
tenderhearted,  and  could  not  withstand  them.    And  now  8 
ye  think  to  withstand  the  kingdom  of  the  Lord  in  the 
hand  of  the  sons  of  David ;  and  ye  be  a  great  multitude, 
and  there  are  with  you  the  golden  calves  which  Jeroboam 

somewhere  near  the  borders  of  the  two  kingdoms ;  verse  19 
impHes  that  it  was  not  far  from  Beth-el  ;  and  it  may  have  lain 
somewhere  in  the  south  of  Ephraim. 

Hear  me,  O  Jeroboam  :  the  address  of  Abijah  to  the  attack- 
ing army  on  the  eve  of  battle  is  absolutely  unique  in  its  lofty 
appeal  to  principle.  In  it  he  treats  the  foe  as  conscious  rebels 
against  Jehovah  and  the  divinely  elected  house  of  David.  He 
reminds  them  of  their  illegitimate  cultus  of  the  calves  and  of 
their  irregular  priesthood ;  whereas  Judah  is  both  loyal  to 
Jehovah  and  to  the  ancient  priesthood  which  performed  the  daily 
service  in  the  national  sanctuar}'.  And  he  concludes  by  the 
reminder  that  Jehovah  is  the  God  of  battles. 

5.  forever:  Abijah  ignores  the  conditions  of  2  Sam.  vii.  14, 
which  conditions  had  been  violated  by  both  Solomon  and 
Rehoboam. 

by  a  covenant  of  salt :  when  a  guest  had  sat  at  the  board 
of  an  Arab  chieftain  and  partaken  of  his  salt,  the  obligation  of  the 
host  towards  the  stranger  was  one  of  inviolable  sanctity. 
Jehovah's  covenant  with  the  Davidic  dynasty  is  regarded  as 
equally  inviolable. 

6.  Jeroboam  .  .  .  rose  up,  and  rebelled:  Abijah  places  the 
entire  blame  upon  Jeroboam  ;  but  cf.  2  Chron.  xi.  4, 

7.  when  Behoboam  was  young-  and  tenderhearted:  cf.  xii. 
13.  The  phrase  implies  the  king's  inexperience  of  men  and  that 
he  was  the  weak  victim  of  autocratic  councillors.  Abijah  scarcely 
does  justice  to  the  facts  of  Rehoboam's  headstrong  conduct. 


236  II   CHRONICLES  13.  9-13.     Ch 

9  made  you  for  gods.  Have  ye  not  driven  out  the  priests 
of  the  Lord,  the  sons  of  Aaron,  and  the  Levites,  and 
have  made  you  priests  after  the  manner  of  the  peoples  of 
other  lands  ?  so  that  whosoever  cometh  to  consecrate 
himself  with  a  young  bullock  and  seven  rams,  the  same 

10  may  be  a  priest  of  thetn  that  are  no  gods.  But  as  for  us, 
the  Lord  is  our  God,  and  we  have  not  forsaken  him ; 
and  we  have  priests  ministering  unto  the  Lord,  the  sons  of 

I  ^  Aaron,  and  the  Levites  in  their  work  :  and  they  burn  unto 
the  Lord  every  morning  and  every  evening  burnt  offerings 
and  sweet  incense  :  the  shewbread  also  set  they  in  order 
upon  the  pure  table ;  and  the  candlestick  of  gold  with 
the  lamps  thereof,  to  burn  every  evening :  for  we  keep 
the  charge  of  the  Lord  our  God ;  but  ye  have  forsaken 

^•^  him.  And,  behold,  God  is  with  us  at  our  head,  and  his 
priests  with  the  trumpets  of  alarm  to  sound  an  alarm 
against  you.  O  children  of  Israel,  fight  ye  not  against 
the   Lord,  the   God  of  your   fathers ;  for  ye  shall  not 

13  prosper.     But  Jeroboam  caused  an  ambushment  to  come 


8.  there  are  with  you  the  gfolden  calves  :  this  does  not  neces- 
sarily imply  that  the  calves  were  brought  into  battle  with  the  host ; 
though  such  was  very  probably  the  case.  In  earlier  ages  the 
Ark  was  carried  to  battle  ;  and  the  Philistines  carried  their 
gods  with  them  when  attacking  David. 

9.  to  consecrate  himself:  the  offering  here  mentioned  is  that 
prescribed  by  the  law,  cf.  Exod.  xxix  ;  but  the  offence  lay  in 
that  nothing  more  than  a  property  qualification  was  demanded 
of  the  applicant  for  the  priesthood. 

12.  the  trumpets  of  alarm:  cf.  Num.  x.  9. 

children  of  Israel :  the  term  had  come  to  denote  the 
northern  kingdom  long  before  the  time  of  the  chronicler's 
originals. 

xiii.  13-20.  The  Battle  of  Mount  Zemaraim.  Jeroboam  made 
a  frontal  attack  and  at  the  same  time  caught  the  southern  clansmen 
in  the  rear.  At  that  moment,  however,  the  battle-charge  was 
sounded  and,   by   the   help  of  Jehovah.    Judah    prevailed.      The 


II    CHRONICLES  13.  14-21.     Ch  237 

about  behind   them  :   so  they  were  before  Judah,  and 
the  ambushment  was  behind  them.     And  when  Judah  14 
looked  back,  behold,  the  battle  was  before  and  behind 
them :  and  they  cried  unto  the  Lord,  and  the  priests 
sounded  with  the   trumpets.     Then  the  men  of  Judah  15 
gave  a  shout :  and  as  the  men  of  Judah  shouted,  it  came 
to  pass,  that  God  smote  Jeroboam  and  all  Israel  before 
Abijah   and  Judah.     And   the  children   of  Israel   fled  16 
before  Judah :  and  God  delivered  them  into  their  hand. 
And  Abijah   and   his   people  slew   them   with  a  great  17 
slaughter :  so  there  fell  down  slain  of  Israel  five  hundred 
thousand  chosen  men.     Thus  the  children  of  Israel  were  18 
brought  under  at  that  time,  and  the  children  of  Judah 
prevailed,  because  they  relied  upon  the  Lord,  the  God 
of  their  fathers.     And  Abijah  pursued  after  Jeroboam,  19 
and  took  cities  from  him,  Beth-el  with  the  towns  thereof, 
and  Jeshanah  with  the  towns  thereof,  and  Ephron  with 
the  towns  thereof.  Neither  did  Jeroboam  recover  strength  20 
again  in  the  days  of  Abijah :  and  the  Lord  smote  him, 
and  he  died.     But  Abijah  waxed  mighty,  and  took  unto  21 

number  of  slain  is  enormous,  but  there  is  no  reason  to  doubt  the 
correctness  of  the  figures  in  view  of  the  conditions  of  early  warfare. 
18,  19.  the  children  of  Israel  were  broug-ht  under :  i.  e. 
they  did  not  recover  from  the  defeat  during  the  reign  of  Jeroboam, 
cf.  verse  20.  Abijah  did  not  recover  the  territory  which  his 
father  had  lost  ;  he  was  merely  able  to  take  certain  cities  from 
the  northern  kingdom.  He  captured  Beth-el,  the  modern  Beitin, 
ten  miles  north  of  Jerusalem  ;  Jeshanah,  the  modern  'Ain  Sinia, 
three  and  a  half  miles  north  of  Beth-el  ;  and  £phron,  possibly  the 
modern  et-Taiyibeh,  four  miles  north-east  of  Beth-el  ;  and  he 
subdued  the  surrounding  territor3\ 

xiii.  21-23.  Abijah  reaped  the  fruits  of  victory  in  the  growing 
prosperity  of  his  kingdom.  Like  every  Oriental  monarch,  he 
increased  the  size  of  his  harem  as  an  index  of  his  power,  although 
some  of  the  wives  alluded  to  must  have  entered  the  harem  before 
the  victory  over  Jeroboam,  seeing  that  Abijah's  entire  reign  only 
lasted  three  years. 


238     II    CHRONICLES  13.  22— 14.  4.     ChHCh 

himself  fourteen  wives,  and  begat  twenty  and  two  sons, 
22  and  sixteen  daughters.     [H]  And  the  rest  of  the  acts  of 

Abijah,  and  his  ways,  and  his  sayings,  are  written  in  the 

commentary  of  the  prophet  Iddo. 
L4      So  Abijah  slept  with  his  fathers,  and  they  buried  him 

in  the  city  of  David,  and  Asa  his  son  reigned  in  his 

2  stead :  in  his  days  the  land  was  quiet  ten  years.     And 
Asa  did  that  which  was  good  and  right  in  the  eyes  of  the 

3  Lord  his  God :  for  he  took  away  the  strange  altars,  and 
the  high  places,  and  brake  down  the  pillars,  and  hewed 

4  down  the  Asherim ;  [Ch]  and  commanded  Judah  to  seek 

22.  the  commentary  of  the  prophet  Iddo:  literally  'the 
midrash,'  i.  e.  a  didactic  exposition  of  history,  either  written  by 
the  prophet  Iddo,  or  else  giving  a  prominent  place  to  him.  It 
may  possibly  have  been  a  part  of  the  '  midrash  of  the  Book  of  the 
Kings '  (i  Chron.  xxiv.  27).     Cf.  Introd.  §  iv. 

(4)  xiv-xvi.     Reign  of  Asa. 

The  material  which  forms  the  foundation  for  the  narrative  is 
identical  with  i  Kings  xv.  8-24,  but  this  has  been  expanded  by 
new  material  and  vivid  details.  The  chronicler  regards  Asa  as 
the  pious  son  of  a  godly  father,  one  who  vigorously  suppressed 
idolatry  and  cared  for  the  fortification  of  his  kingdom.  He 
describes  the  Ethiopian  campaign,  wherein  Asa  gained  a  victory 
paralleled  by  that  of  Abijah  at  Mount  Zemaraim,  and  tells  us  that 
the  victory  was  turned  to  good  account  by  the  prophet  Azariah, 
Asa  then  renews  his  zeal  for  Jehovah,  enriches  the  Temple,  and 
holds  a  national  religious  festival.  Subsequently  he  is  attacked 
by  Baasha  of  Israel  and  uses  the  Temple  treasures  to  buy  the  aid 
of  Ben-hadad  of  Syria  ;  for  this  he  is  censured  by  another  prophet, 
Hanani.  After  further  fortifying  his  northern  frontier,  Asa's  long 
reign  of  forty-one  years  draws  to  a  close,  and  he  dies  amid  national 
lamentations. 

xiv.  1-8.     Reformation  ajtd  Consolidation. 

3.  the  strang'e  altars :  i.  e.  altars  dedicated  to  foreign  deities. 

the   pillars :    Heb.    Massebdh    denotes   a  stele,    or   upright 

stone,  regarded  as  the  symbol  of  a  deity  ;  these  pillars  formed  an 

essential  part  of  the  heathen  cultus  of  Syria  and  were  frequently 

dedicated  to  the  sun-god,  Ba'al. 

the  Asherim:  A.  V.  'groves';  the  Asherah  was  an  upright 
pole  or  mast  which  stood  beside  the  altar  in  front  of  Canaanitish 
sanctuaries,  and  was  regarded  as  a  symbol  of  the  goddess  Astarte. 


II    CHRONICLES  14.  5-9.     Ch  H^  239 

the  Lord,  the  God  of  their  fathers,  and  to  do  the  law  and 
the  commandment.     Also  he  took  away  out  of  all  the  => 
cities  of  Judah  the  high  places  and  the  sun-images  :  and 
the  kingdom  was  quiet  before  him.     And  he  built  fenced  6 
cities  in  Judah :  for  the  land  was  quiet,  and  he  had  no 
war  in  those  years ;  because  the  Lord  had  given  him 
rest.     For  he  said  unto  Judah,  Let  us  build  these  cities,  7 
and  make  about  them  walls,  and  towers,  gates,  and  bars ; 
the  land  is  yet  before  us,  because  we  have  sought  the 
Lord  our  God ;  we  have  sought  him,  and  he  hath  given 
us  rest  on  every  side.     So  they  built   and   prospered. 
And  Asa  had  an  army  that  bare  bucklers  and  spears,  out  8 
of  Judah  three  hundred  thousand ;  and  out  of  Benjamin, 
that   bare   shields   and   drew   bows,   two   hundred   and 
fourscore  thousand :  all  these  were  mighty  men  of  valour. 
[H^]  And  there  came  out  against  them  Zerah  the  Ethio-  9 


To  the  worshippers  of  Jehovah  the   worship  of  a  female  deity 
was  especially  repugnant. 

4.  commanded  Judah  to  seek  the  IiORD  :  his  reforming  zeal 
had  a  positive  as  well  as  a  negative  side. 

5.  the  higfh  places :  cf.  note  on  i  Chron.  xvi.  39.  In  i  Kings  xv. 
14  we  are  informed  that  Asa  did  not  take  away  the  high  places, 
although  it  is  distinctly  implied  that  his  failure  in  this  respect  was 
due  to  the  inveterate  tendencies  of  the  people  for  their  use  rather 
than  to  his  own  delinquencies. 

the  sun-images :  Heb.  hamindnmt.  These  were  sacred 
stones  or  steles  used  in  connexion  with  the  ^  bdmah,^  and  maj' 
possibly  have  belonged  to  the  cult  of  the  god  Ba'al-hamman,  so 
prevalent  in  Carthaginia. 

6.  the  land  was  quiet :  the  first  ten  years  of  Asa's  reign  were 
free  from  war  and  were  devoted  wholly  to  religious  reform  and  to 
consolidation  of  the  kingdom. 

■7.  So  they  built  and  prospered:  we  are  not  informed  of  the 
names  of  these  new  fortresses. 

8.  out  of  Benjamin . . .  two  hundred  and  fourscore  thousand: 
the  figures  are  so  large  in  connexion  with  a  little  tribe  like  Benjamin 
that  they  create  suspicion  of  their  genuineness. 

xiv.  9-15.   The  Ethiopian  Invasion. 

9.  Zerah  the  Ethiopian  :  it  is  exceedingly  difficult  to  determine 


240     II   CHRONICLES  14.  10-14.     H^  Ch  H^  Ch 

pian  with  an  army  of  a  thousand  thousand,  and  three 

10  hundred  chariots;  and  he  came  unto  Mareshah.  Then 
Asa  went  out  to  meet  him,  and  they  set  the  battle  in 

1 1  array  in  the  valley  of  Zephathah  at  Mareshah.  [Ch]  And 
Asa  cried  unto  the  Lord  his  God,  and  said.  Lord,  there 
is  none  beside  thee  to  help,  between  the  mighty  and 
him  that  hath  no  strength :  help  us,  O  Lord  our  God ; 
for  we  rely  on  thee,  and  in  thy  name  are  we  come  against 
this  multitude.     O  Lord,  thou  art  our  God ;  let  not  man 

12  prevail  against  thee.  [H^]  So  the  Lord  smote  the  Ethio- 
pians before  Asa,  and  before  Judah ;  and  the  Ethiopians 

13  fled.  And  Asa  and  the  people  that  were  with  him 
pursued  them  unto  Gerar :  [Ch]  and  there  fell  of  the 
Ethiopians  so  many  that  they  could  not  recover  them- 
selves; for  they  were  destroyed  before  the  Lord,  and 
before  his  host ;  and  they  carried  away  very  much  booty. 

14  And  they  smote  all  the  cities  round  about  Gerar;  for  the 
fear  of  the  Lord  came  upon  them  :  and  they  spoiled  all 

who  this  invader  was.  Usually  he  is  identified  with  Osorkon  I  of 
Egypt,  a  ruler  of  the  twenty-second,  or  Bubastic  dynasty  (so 
Ewald)  ;  but  Osorkon  was  not  an  Ethiopian,  Others  adopt  the 
methods  of  a  negative  criticism  and  reject  the  entire  narrative, 
thus  certainly  escaping  its  problems  (so  Kuenen  and  Wellhausen). 
Perhaps  the  best  positive  solution  is  that  which  regards  Zerah  as 
a  ruler  of  south  Arabia  (so  Kittel).  His  troops  are  roughly 
estimated  at  one  million  foot. 

Mareshah:  i.e.  Marissa.     Cf,  note  on  xi.  8, 

10.  in  the  valley  of  Zephathah :  Asa  drew  up  his  battle-line 
on  level  ground  near  Mareshah. 

11,  12.  The  Jewish  king  makes  his  appeal  to  Jehovah  against 
his  overwhelming  odds,  and  Jehovah  answers,  giving  a  complete 
victory  to  the  pious  king. 

13.  The  rout  of  the  bedouin  hordes  is  absolute.  The  flying 
hosts  are  pursued  as  far  as  Gerar,  now  identified  with  el-Jerar, 
five  miles  south  of  Gaza.  The  very  size  of  the  defeated  host 
caused  confusion,  and  enormous  booty  fell  to  Asa. 

14.  all  the  cities  round  about  Gazar :  as  these  were  all 
Philistine  cities,  they  were  probably  confederate  with  Zerah. 


II   CHRONICLES  14.  15— 15.  6.     Ch        241 

the  cities;   for  there  was   much  spoil  in  them.     They  15 
smote  also  the  tents  of  cattle,  and  carried  away  sheep 
in  abundance  and  camels,  and  returned  to  Jerusalem. 

And  the  spirit  of  God  came  upon  Azariah  the  son  of  15 
Oded  :  and  he  went  out  to  meet  Asa,  and  said  unto  him,  2 
Hear  ye  me,  Asa,  and  all  Judah  and  Benjamin  :  the  Lord 
is  with  you,  while  ye  be  with  him ;  and  if  ye  seek  him,  he 
will  be  found  of  you ;   but  if  ye  forsake  him,  he  will 
forsake  you.     Now  for  long  seasons   Israel  hath   been  3 
without  the  true  God,  and  without  a  teaching  priest,  and 
without  law  :  but  when  in  their  distress  they  turned  unto  4 
the  Lord,  the  God  of  Israel,  and  sought  him,  he  was 
found  of  them.     And  in  those  times  there  was  no  peace  5 
to  him  that  went  out,  nor  to  him  that  came  in,  but  great 
vexations  were  upon  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  lands. 
And  they  were  broken  in  pieces,  nation  against  nation,  6 

XV.  1-7.     The  Prophecy  of  Azariah. 

1.  Azariah  the  son  of  Oded  :  we  have  no  mention  elsewhere  of 
the  prophet  Azariah-ben-Oded.  His  only  recorded  appearance 
seems  to  have  been  this  encounter  with  the  victorious  Asa.  The 
phrase  '•  the  spirit  of  God  came  upon  Azariah '  is  in  harmony  with 
the  belief  that  all  prophets  were  directly  controlled  by  a  super- 
natural spirit.  The  Hebrew  word  for  '  spirit '  (m-\  rtiali)  denotes 
'wind'  or  'breath/  and  is  used  in  conjunction  with  Jehovah  or 
Elohim  as  the  Quickener  of  nature  (e.  g.  Job  xxxii.  8),  as  the  Giver 
of  intelligence  (e.g.  i  Sam.  xvi.  13),  as  the  Creator  (e.g.  Ps.  civ. 
30),  and  as  the  Inspirer  of  prophecy  (e.g.  Num.  xi.  29).  In  the 
O.T.  the  personality  of  the  Spirit  of  God  had  not  yet  clearly 
emerged,  although  it  is  certainly  impHcit ;  the  Spirit  is,  then, 
rather  a  power  subject  to  God's  free  will  and  closely  connected 
with  His  word. 

Ql-1.  The  prophet  opens  his  address  to  king  and  army  with 
a  general  statement  that  God's  attitude  to  the  people  invariably 
depends  upon  their  attitude  to  Him,  Interpreters  of  the  words  of 
Azariah  have  been  at  pains  to  determine  a  definite  reference  to 
historical  circumstances,  indicating  sometimes  the  past  experience 
of  Israel  under  the  Judges,  sometimes  the  contemporary  condition 
of  the  northern  tribes,  and  sometimes  the  future  ages  under  Roman 


242  II   CHRONICLES  15.  7-11.     Ch 

and  city  against  city  :    for  God  did  vex  them  with  all 

7  adversity.     But  be  ye  strong,  and  let  not  your  hands  be 

8  slack  :  for  your  work  shall  be  rewarded.  And  when  Asa 
heard  these  words,  and  the  prophecy  of  Oded  the 
prophet,  he  took  courage,  and  put  away  the  abominations 
out  of  all  the  land  of  Judah  and  Benjamin,  and  out  of 
the  cities  which  he  had  taken  from  the  hill  country  of 
Ephraim  ;  and  he  renewed  the  altar  of  the  Lord,  that 

9  was  before  the  porch  of  the  Lord.  And  he  gathered  all 
Judah  and  Benjamin,  and  them  that  sojourned  with  them 
out  of  Ephraim  and  Manasseh,  and  out  of  Simeon :  for 
they  fell  to  him  out  of  Israel  in  abundance,  when  they 

10  saw  that  the  Lord  his  God  was  with  him.     So  they 
gathered  themselves  together  at  Jerusalem  in  the  third 

11  month,  in  the  fifteenth  year  of  the  reign  of  Asa.     And 

rule.  Such  interpretations  are,  at  the  best,  precarious.  The 
only  satisfactory  way  is  to  regard  the  statements  as  made  in 
a  general  sense,  capable  of  illustration  from  all  ages  yet  limited  to 
no  one  occasion.  In  vivid  language  Azariah  depicts  the  results 
of  apostasy  and  turns  his  address  into  an  earnest  exhortation 
for  courage  in  the  service  of  Jehovah. 
XV.  8-18.      Religious  Reform. 

8.  the  prophecy  of  Oded  the  prophet :  the  text  is  corrupt. 
The  prophet's  name  was  '  Azariah-ben-Oded.'  Either,  then, 
several  words  have  dropped  out ;  or  else  the  words  '  of  Oded  the 
prophet  *  have  been  inserted  from  a  marginal  gloss  and  should  be 
omitted.  The  latter  explanation  is  the  more  probable  as  the 
Hebrew  words  stand  in  an  impossible  construction  at  present. 

abominations  :  a  general  term  for  idolatrous  worship. 

renewed  the  altar  of  the  I.ORD :  i.e.  the  altar  of  burnt 
offering,  which  might  well  need  repair  after  having  stood  for  sixty 
years,  even  if  it  did  not  need  cleansing  from  idolatrous  defilement. 

9.  out  of  Simeon :  as  this  tribe  lay  south  of  Judah  it  cannot  be 
implied  here  that  it  had  actually  joined  the  revolted  tribes  of  the 
north.  Probably  Simeon  had  largely  lapsed  into  idolatry  after 
elevating  Beer-sheba  to  the  dignity  of  a  shrine  (cf.  Amos  v.  5,  viii. 
14).  Under  Asa's  revival  numerous  devout  Simeonites  flocked  to 
the  great  festival  at  Jerusalem  along  with  the  worshippers 
from  the  north. 

10.  in  the  fifteenth  year  of  the  reigfn  of  Asa :  we  learn  from 


II   CHRONICLES  15.  12-17.     Ch  H  243 

they  sacrificed  unto  the  Lord  in  that  day,  of  the  spoil 
which  they  had  brought,  seven  hundred  oxen  and  seven 
thousand  sheep.     And  they  entered  into  the  covenant  to  1 2 
seek  the  Lord,  the  God  of  their  fathers,  with  all  their 
heart  and  with  all  their  soul ;  and  that  whosoever  would  1 3 
not  seek  the  Lord,  the  God  of  Israel,  should  be  put  to 
death,  whether  small  or  great,  whether  man  or  woman. 
And  they  sware  unto  the  Lord  with  a  loud  voice,  and  14 
with   shouting,   and   with   trumpets,    and  with    cornets. 
And  all  Judah  rejoiced  at  the  oath  :  for  they  had  sworn  15 
with  all  their  heart,  and  sought  him  with  their  whole 
desire ;  and  he  was  found  of  them  :  and  the  Lord  gave 
them   rest   round   about.     [H]  And   also    Maacah   the  16 
mother  of  Asa  the  king,  he  removed  her  from  being 
queen,  because  she  had  made  an  abominable  image  for 
an  Asherah;  and  Asa  cut  down  her  image,  and  made 
dust  of  it,  and  burnt  it  at  the  brook  Kidron.     But  the  17 

xiv.  I  that  the  first  ten  years  of  Asa's  reign  were  uninterrupted 
by  war.  Hence  the  campaign  of  Zerah  occurred  some  time  within 
the  next  five  years  ;  and  the  invasion  can  scarcely  have  been 
crushed  until  well  on  towards  the  fifteenth  year,  seeing  that  the 
booty  formed  the  sacrifice  at  the  great  festival.  This  festival  was 
unconnected  with  any  of  the  great  Deuteronomic  festivals.  The 
third  month  corresponds  to  our  June. 

11.  of  the  spoil:  presumably  the  result  of  the  victory  over 
Zerah. 

12.  entered  into  the  covenant:  i.e.  renewed  the  covenant 
vows  of  loyalty  to  Jehovah. 

13.  should  be  put  to  death  :  in  accordance  with  Deut.  xvii.  2-6. 
The  grounds  for  this  were  both  religious  and  political,  in  that 
worship  of  foreign  gods  implied  disloyalty  to  the  state  as  well  as 
to  Jehovah. 

16.  From  this  point  to  xvi.  6,  the  narrative  corresponds  with 
I  Kings  XV.  13-22. 

from  being'  queen:  read  'queen-mother  '  as  in  margin. 

an  abominable  image :  it  is  impossible  to  decide  what  kind 
of  abomination  is  here  meant ;  possibly  an  image  of  the  goddess 
Astarte. 

17.  the  high  places  were  not  taken  away :  the  intense  religious 

R   2 


244         II   CHRONICLES  15.  i8— 16.  i.     H 

high  places  were  not  taken  away  out  of  Israel :  neverthe- 

i8  less  the  heart  of  Asa  was  perfect  all  his  days.     And  he 

brought  into  the  house  of  God  the  things  that  his  father 

had  dedicated,  and  that  he  himself  had  dedicated,  silver, 

19  and  gold,  and  vessels.     And  there  was  no  more  war  unto 

the  five  and  thirtieth  year  of  the  reign  of  Asa. 
16      In  the  six  and  thirtieth  year  of  the  reign  of  Asa, 
Baasha  king  of  Israel  went  up  against  Judah,  and  built 
Ramah,  that  he  might  not  suffer  any  to  go  out  or  come 

objection  to  local  shrines  can  hardly  be  regarded  as  fully  felt  in 
the  time  of  Asa.  In  earlier  days  it  was  considered  quite  legiti- 
mate to  worship  at  the  '■bdmdh,''  as  we  see  from  the  case  of 
Samuel ;  but  the  custom,  so  open  to  abuse,  had  come  to  be  regarded 
as  essentially  idolatrous  by  the  Deuteronomists  long  before  the 
chronicler's  day. 

19.  The  apparent  discrepancy  between  this  statement  and 
I  Kings  XV.  16  may  be  explained  by  the  assumption  that  a  hostile 
attitude  between  the  two  kingdoms  existed  continually,  but  that 
actual  war  only  broke  out  in  the  thirty-sixth  year  of  Asa's 
reign.  But  cf.  note  on  xvi.  i,  where  it  is  shown  that  there  is  an 
error  in  the  dates. 

xvi.     Asa's  Reign  ends  in  War  and  Weakness. 

Towards  the  close  of  Asa's  reign,  according  to  the  chronicler's 
narrative  (cf.  verse  i),  the  latent  hostility  of  Israel  burst  out  anew 
into  open  war,  and  Asa  sought  a  defensive  alliance  with  Damascus 
at  the  price  of  the  Temple  treasures.  This  sign  of  distrust  of 
Jehovah  called  forth  a  stinging  rebuke  from  the  prophet  Hanani. 
The  monarch's  latter  days  were  marked  by  oppression,  disease, 
and  defection  ;  yet  he  was  followed  to  the  grave  with  every  sign 
of  national  lamentation. 

xvi.   1-6.     War  with  Baasha  (cf.  i  Kings  xv.  16-22). 

1.  In  the  six  and  thirtieth  year  of  the  reigfn  of  Asa :  evidently 
the  date  is  incorrect.  In  i  Kings  xvi.  8-10  we  learn  that  Baasha 
died  in  the  twenty-sixth  yeai  of  Asa's  reign  and  that  his  successor 
Elah  died  in  the  twenty-seventh.  Clearly  there  has  been  a  con- 
fusion between  the  letters  representing  the  numerals.  (In  Hebrew, 
thirty  was  represented  by  '1  and  ten  by  >).  Hence  we  should 
possibly  change  the  dates  in  xv.  19  and  xvi.  i  to  15th  and  i6th 
respectively. 

built  Kamah:    a  border  town  between  the  two  kingdoms, 
represented  by  the  modern  er-Ram,  five  miles  north  of  Jerusalem. 


II   CHRONICLES  16.  2-7.     H  Ch  245 

in  to  Asa  king  of  Judah.     Then  Asa  brought  out  silver  2 
and  gold   out   of  the   treasures   of   the   house   of  the 
Lord  and  of  the  king's  house,  and  sent  to  Ben-hadad 
king  of  Syria,  that  dwelt  at  Damascus,  saying.  There  is  a  3 
league  between  me  and  thee,  as  there  ivas  between  my 
father  and  thy  father  :    behold,  I  have  sent  thee  silver 
and   gold ;   go,  break  thy  league  with   Baasha   king  of 
Israel,  that  he  may  depart  from  me.     And  Ben-hadad  4 
hearkened  unto  king  Asa,  and  sent  the  captains  of  his 
armies    against    the    cities    of  Israel;   and   they    smote 
Ijon,  and  Dan,  and  Abel-maim,  and  all  the  store  cities  of 
Naphtali.     And  it  came   to   pass,  when   Baasha   heard  5 
thereof,  that  he  left  off  building  of  Ramah,  and  let  his 
work  cease.     Then  Asa  the  king  took  all  Judah  ;  and  6 
they  carried  away  the  stones  of  Ramah,  and  the  timber 
thereof,  wherewith  Baasha  had  builded  ;  and  he  built 
therewith  Geba  and  Mizpah.     [Ch]  And  at  that  time  7 
Hanani  the  seer  came  to  Asa  king  of  Judah,  and  said 

2.  Ben-hadad :  the  original  form  of  the  name  of  this  energetic 
and  warhke  ally  of  Asa  seems  to  have  been  Bir-'idri. 

3.  a  league  between  me  and  thee :  the  Syrian  kings  were 
always  open  to  ally  themselves  with  one  or  other  of  the  Hebrew 
kingdoms  so  as  to  keep  the  power  of  both  in  check. 

4.  Ijon  :  the  name  still  survives  in  the  Merj-'Ayun,  a  rich  plain 
at  the  foot  of  the  hills  of  Naphtali.  Dan  is  the  modern  Tell-el- 
KadT  ;  it  was  the  most  northerly  city  of  Israel.  Abel-maim,  or 
'  Abel-in-the-water,'  now  called  Abil,  was  situated  high  on  a  hill 
overlooking  the  Jordan  valley,  not  far  from  Dan.  All  the  store 
cities  is  another  way  of  indicating  what  i  Kings  calls  '  all 
Chinnereth,'  a  fertile  district  west  of  Gennesaret. 

6.  Geba:  the  modern  Jeba,  a  little  north-east  of  Ramah.  By 
fortifying  Geba,  Asa  pushed  his  frontier  further  north.  Mizpah  : 
on  a  lofty  point  not  far  from  Jerusalem  and  south-west  of  Ramah. 

xvi.  7-10.     HananVs  Rebuke. 

7.  Xlanani:  the  otherwise  unknown  prophet  implies  that 
Ben-hfidad  was  indeed  confederate  with  Baasha,  yet  Jehovah 
would  have  given  victory  to  Asa  over  the  combined  forces.  Like 
all  the  great  prophets,  he  protested  against  the  policy  of  foreign 


246      II   CHRONICLES  16.  8-14.     Ch  Ch^  Ch 

unto  him,  Because  thou  hast  relied  on  the  king  of  Syria, 
and  hast  not  relied  on  the  Lord  thy  God,  therefore  is  the 
host  of  the  king  of  Syria  escaped  out  of  thine  hand. 

8  Were  not  the  Ethiopians  and  the  Lubim  a  huge  host, 
with  chariots  and  horsemen  exceeding  many?  yet,  because 
thou  didst  rely  on  the  Lord,  he  delivered  them  into  thine 

9  hand.  For  the  eyes  of  the  Lord  run  to  and  fro  through- 
out the  whole  earth,  to  shew  himself  strong  in  the  behalf 
of  them  whose  heart  is  perfect  toward  him.  Herein  thou 
hast  done  foolishly ;  for  from  henceforth  thou  shalt  have 

10  wars.  Then  Asa  was  wroth  with  the  seer,  and  put  him 
in  the  prison  house ;  for  he  was  in  a  rage  with  him 
because  of  this  thing.     And  Asa  oppressed  some  of  the 

1 1  people  the  same  time.  [Ch^]  And,  behold,  the  acts  of  Asa, 
first  and  last,  lo,  they  are  written  in  the  book  of  the  kings 

12  of  Judah  and  Israel.  [Ch]  And  in  the  thirty  and  ninth 
year  of  his  reign  Asa  was  diseased  in  his  feet ;  his  disease 
was  exceeding  great :  yet  in  his  disease  he  sought  not  to 

13  the  Lord,  but  to  the  physicians.  And  Asa  slept  with  his 
fathers,  and  died  in  the  one  and  fortieth  year  of  his  reign. 

14  And  they  buried  him  in  his  own  sepulchres,  which  he 
had  hewn  out  for  himself  in  the  city  of  David,  and  laid 
him  in  the  bed  which  was  filled  with  sweet  odours  and 

alliances.  Asa's  conduct  was  responsible  for  the  first  Syriar 
invasion  of  the  northern  kingdom. 

9.  thou  Shalt  have  wars :  of  these  we  have  no  record,  bu 
Hanani  foresaw  the  result  of  Asa's  timidity  and  his  Syriai, 
alliances. 

10.  Asa  oppressed  some  of  the  people :  the  phrase  implie 
that  there  had  been  a  strong  protest  against  the  king's  treatmen 
of  Hanani  and  that  he  used  repressive  measures  in  return. 

xvi.  11-14.     ^sa's  Decline  and  Death  (cf.  i  Kings  xv.  23,  24). 

11.  the  book  of  the  kings  of  Judah  and  Israel:  cf.  Introd.  §  iv 

12.  the  physicians:  probably  magicians  are  referred  to.  Th 
practice  of  medicine  was  in  all  likelihood  really  confined  to  tb 
priests,  as  in  Egypt, 


II   CHRONICLES  17.  1-3.     Ch  H  Ch      247 

divers  kinds  of  spices  prepared  by  the  apothecaries'  art : 
and  they  made  a  very  great  burning  for  him. 

[H]  And  Jehoshaphat  his  son  reigned  in  his  stead,  17 
[Ch]  and  strengthened  himself  against  Israel.     And  he  2 
placed  forces  in  all  the  fenced  cities  of  Judah,  and  set 
garrisons  in  the  land   of  Judah,  and   in  the  cities   of 
Ephraim,  which  Asa  his  father  had   taken.     And   the  3 
Lord  was  with  Jehoshaphat,  because  he  walked  in  the 
first  ways  of  his  father  David,  and  sought  not  unto  the 

14.  a  very  great  burning' :  not  a  cremation  of  the  king,  which 
would  have  been  contrary  to  all  Hebrew  custom,  but  the  burning 
of  enormous  quantities  of  incense  and  spices. 

(5)  xvii-xx.     Reign  of  Jehoshaphat. 

To  our  historian  the  age  of  Jehoshaphat  was  an  era  of  dazzling 
splendour  almost  unsurpassed  in  the  annals  of  Judah.  His  narrative 
runs  closely  parallel  to  that  of  i  Kings  (xv.  24**,  xxii.  1-35% 
41-43%  48,  49),  but  it  has  been  enriched  by  large  additions  as  well 
as  qualified  by  significant  omissions.  The  chronicler  paints  the 
picture  of  a  pious  monarch  walking  in  the  steps  of  David,  removing 
*the  high-places  and  the  Asherim,  and  organizing  a  Levitical  com- 
mission to  instruct  the  people  in  the  laws  of  Jehovah.  Under 
such  a  regime  the  kingdom  becomes  powerful  and  enjoys  the 
blessings  of  peace.  The  one  event  which  is  unworthy  of  such 
a  monarch  is  shown  to  be  the  alliance  with  Ahab  against  Ramoth- 
.gilead  ;  but  Jehoshaphat  is  allowed  to  escape  from  the  resultant 
'disaster  because  of  his  piety.  This  deliverance  is  followed  by 
'greater  devotion  to  Jehovah,  and  when,  later  on,  an  invasion  of 
,'the  land  is  made  by  a  triple  army,  the  victory  is  secured  to  Judah 
■by  the  direct  response  of  Jehovah  to  His  people's  faith  without 
,  their  striking  a  single  blow.  The  victory  leads  up  to  a  solemn 
religious  festival  of  praise  at  Jerusalem — a  fitting  climax  to  a  reign 
^in  the  eyes  of  a  Levitical  historian. 

.{  xvii.     Jehoshaphat' s  Early  Kingship. 

J      xvii.  1-5.     Fortifying  the  Kingdom. 

^  1.  strengthened  himself  against  Israel :  Jehoshaphat  sought 
to  secure  his  kingdom  by  looking  to  the  garrison  towns  rather 
than  by  means  of  foreign  alliances,  as  Asa  had  done. 

P     2.  cities  of  Ephraim :  cf.  xv.  8. 

3.  the  first  ways  of  his  father  David :  the  reference  is  to  the 

^  years  before  David  fell  into  the  crime  of  the  Bath-sheba  incident,  &c. 


248       II    CHRONICLES  17.  4-10.     Ch  H' Ch 

4  Baalim  ;  but  sought  to  the  God  of  his  father,  and  walked 
in  his  commandments,  and  not  after  the  doings  of  Israel. 

5  Therefore  the  Lord  stablished  the  kingdom  in  his  hand ; 
and  all  Judah  brought  to  Jehoshaphat  presents ;  and  he 

6  had  riches  and  honour  in  abundance.  And  his  heart 
was  lifted  up  in  the  ways  of  the  Lord  :  and  furthermore 
he  took  away  the  high  places  and  the  Asherim  out  of 

7  Judah.  Also  in  the  third  year  of  his  reign  he  sent  his 
princes,  even  Ben-hail,  and  Obadiah,  and  Zechariah,  and 
Nethanel,  and  Micaiah,  to  teach  in  the  cities  of  Judah ; 

8  and  with  them  the  Levites,  even  Shemaiah,  and  Nethaniah, 
and  Zebadiah,  and  Asahel,  and  Shemiramoth,  and  Jeho- 
nathan,  and  Adonijah,  and  Tobijah,  and  Tob-adonijah, 
the  Levites  ;  and  with  them  [H^]  Elishama  and  Jehoram, 

9  the  priests.  And  they  taught  in  Judah,  having  the  book 
of  the  law  of  the  Lord  with  them  ;  and  they  went  about 
throughout  all  the  cities  of  Judah,  and  taught  among  the 

10  people.     [Ch]  And  the  fear  of  the  Lord  fell  upon  all 

5.  brought  .  .  .  presents :  these  were  voluntary  gifts,  not 
tribute,  given  to  a  monarch  whom  they  respected  and  loved. 

xvii,  6-1 T.  Religious  Reform.  Encouraged  by  three  years  of 
temporal  prosperity,  Jehoshaphat  next  purged  the  land  of 
idolatrous  worship  and  organized  a  system  of  religious  instruction 
for  the  people  at  the  hands  of  a  commission  of  princes,  Levites, 
and  priests.  The  Book  of  Kings  knows  nothing  of  this  commission, 
but  we  are  not  therefore  justified  in  denying  its  historicity. 

6.  the  high  places  and  the  Asherim :  i.  e.  lingering  signs  of 
heathen  cults. 

7.  8.  The  commission  consisted  of  five  princes,  nine  Levites, 
and  two  priests  ;  nothing  is  known  of  the  individual  members. 

9.  the  book  of  the  law  of  the  I.ORD :  probably  this  was  the 
Deuteronomic  code,  the  books  of  Moses,  although  it  is  almost 
certain  that  it  was  not  in  its  present  form. 

10.  the  fear  of  the  IiOl&D  fell :  the  strength  of  a  land  and  the! 
power  of  the  national  deity  were  held  to  be  inseparable  ;  hencef 
the  security  of  the  kingdom  produced  an  impression  of  the  greatness^ 
of  Jehovah. 


II   CHRONICLES  17.  ii— 18.  i.     Ch  Ch^      249 

the  kingdoms  of  the  lands  that  were  round  about  Judah, 
so  that  they  made  no  war  against  Jehoshaphat.     And  n 
some  of  the  Phihstines  brought  Jehoshaphat  presents, 
and  silver  for  tribute ;  the  Arabians  also  brought  him 
flocks,   seven  thousand  and   seven  hundred   rams,  and 
seven    thousand    and    seven    hundred    he-goats.     And  12 
Jehoshaphat  waxed  great  exceedingly;  and  he  built  in 
Judah  castles  and  cities  of  store.     And  he  had  many  13 
works  in  the  cities  of  Judah ;  and  men  of  war,  mighty 
men  of  valour,  in  Jerusalem.     And  this  was  the  number-  14 
ing  of  them  according  to  their  fathers'  houses  :  of  Judah, 
the  captains  of  thousands ;  Adnah  the  captain,  and  with 
him  mighty  men   of  valour   three  hundred   thousand  ; 
and  next  to  him  Jehohanan  the  captain,  and  with  him  15 
two  hundred  and  fourscore  thousand;  and  next  to  him  16 
Amasiah  the  son  of  Zichri,  who  willingly  offered  himself 
unto  the  Lord  ;  and  with  him  two  hundred  thousand 
mighty  men  of  valour  :  and  of  Benjamin ;  Eliada  a  mighty  17 
man  of  valour,  and  with  him  two  hundred  thousand  armed 
with  bow  and  shield  :  and  next  to  him  Jehozabad,  and  18 
with  him   an   hundred   and   fourscore   thousand   ready 
prepared  for  war.     These  were  they  that  waited  on  the  19 
king,  beside  those  whom  the  king  put  in  the  fenced  cities 
throughout  all  Judah. 

[Ch^]  Now   Jehoshaphat   had  riches  and  honour  in  18 

xvii.  12-19.  Jehoshaphaf  s  Poiver.  The  military  organization 
and  the  works  for  national  defence  were  pushed  on  continually  as 
a  result  of  growing  power  and  prestige.  The  three  captains  of 
Judah  and  the  two  of  Benjamin  commanded  between  them 
1,160.000  men.  The  numbers  seem  to  be  excessive,  especially 
when  we  recall  the  fact  that  David's  census  only  gave  500,000  to 
all  Judah  ;  but  we  have  no  means  of  correcting  the  figures. 

xviii.     Jehoshaphat  and  the  Northern  Kingdom. 
The  incident  of  Jehoshaphat's  marriage  alliance  with  Ahab's 


250  II   CHRONICLES  18.  2-5.     Ch^  H 

2  abundance ;  and  he  joined  affinity  with  Ahab.  And 
after  certain  years  he  went  down  to  Ahab  to  Samaria. 
And  Ahab  killed  sheep  and  oxen  for  him  in  abundance, 
and  for  the  people  that  were  with  him,  and  moved  him  to 

3  go  up  tvith  him  to  Ramoth-gilead.  [H]  And  Ahab  king 
of  Israel  said  unto  Jehoshaphat  king  of  Judah,  Wilt  thou 
go  with  me  to  Ramoth-gilead  ?  And  he  answered  him, 
I  am  as  thou  art,  and  my  people  as  thy  people;  and 

4  ive  will  be  with  thee  in  the  war.  And  Jehoshaphat  said 
unto  the  king  of  Israel,  Inquire,  I  pray  thee,  at  the  word 

5  of  the  Lord  to-day.     Then  the  king  o'f  Israel  gathered 

house  and  the  united  campaign  of  the  two  kings  against  Ramoth- 
gilead  is  found  also  in  i  Kings  xxii.  i-ss'^.  It  is  one  of  the  few 
instances  in  which  the  chronicler  alludes  to  the  history  of  northern 
Israel,  but  is  probably  introduced  as  serving  to  show  Jehovah's 
care  for  the  pious  king  of  Judah. 

xviii.  1-4.     The  Alliance  with  Israel. 

1.  Jehoshaphat   had    riches    and    honour    in   abundance : 

a  statement  which  cuts  at  the  root  of  the  idea  that  he  was  virtually 
a  vassal  of  Ahab,  although  this  has  actually  been  held  by  some 
students  of  the  narrative. 

joinsd  affinity  with  Ahab  :  Jehoshaphat's  son  Joram  married 
Ahab's  daughter  Athaliah  (cf.  xxi.  6).  The  chronicler  shows  by 
the  sequel  how  disastrous  such  an  alliance  was.  It  led  Jehoshaphat 
to  risk  his  own  life  (xviii.  31),  it  paved  the  way  to  the  introduction 
of  Phoenician  idolatry  into  Judah  (xxii.  sfT.^  and  it  eventually 
resulted  in  the  almost  extirpation  of  the  royal  house  (xxii.  10-12). 

2.  after  certain  years :  in  i  Kings  xxii.  i  we  learn  that 
three  years  of  peace  had  followed  Ahab's  earlier  Syrian  campaign. 

moved  him  to  g-o  up  :  Jehoshaphat  seems  to  have  been  won 
over,  perhaps  against  his  own  judgement,  by  Ahab's  hospitality 
and  entreaty. 

Bamoth-gilead:  aGadite  fortress  of  disputed  site.  G.  A.  Smith 
conjectures  the  modern  er-Ramthe  to  be  its  representative.  Others 
favour  Salhad.  In  any  case  it  was  an  important  stronghold  over 
which  Israel  and  Syria  long  waged  war. 

xviii.  5-27.     Consultation  of  the  Prophets. 

5.  the  king*  of  Israel  g-athered  the  prophets  :  here  we  have 
an  instructive  insight  into  the  religious  conditions  of  northern 
Israel.    The  worship  of  Jehovah  lingered  and  was  largely  practised, 


II   CHRONICLES  18.  6-12.     H  251 

the  prophets  together,  four  hundred  men,  and  said  unto 
them,  Shall  we  go  to  Ramoth-gilead  to  battle,  or  shall 
I  forbear  ?  And  they  said,  Go  up  ;  for  God  shall  deliver  it 
into  the  hand  of  the  king.     But  Jehoshaphat  said,  Is  6 
there  not  here  besides  a  prophet  of  the  Lord,  that  we 
might  inquire  of  him  ?  And  the  king  of  Israel  said  unto  7 
Jehoshaphat,  There  is  yet  one  man  by  whom  we  may 
inquire  of  the  Lord  :  but  I   hate   him ;  for  he  never 
prophesieth  good  concerning  me,  but  always  evil :  the 
same  is  Micaiah  the  son  of  Imla.     And  Jehoshaphat  said, 
Let  not  the  king  say  so.     Then  the  king  of  Israel  called  8 
an  officer,  and  said,  Fetch  quickly  Micaiah  the  son  of 
Imla.     Now  the  king  of  Israel  and  Jehoshaphat  the  king  9 
of  Judah  sat  each  on  his  throne,  arrayed  in  their  robes, 
and  they  sat  in  an  open  place  at  the  entrance  of  the  gate 
of  Samaria;    and   all   the   prophets   prophesied   before 
them.     And  Zedekiah  the  son  of  Chenaanah  made  him  10 
horns  of  iron,  and  said.   Thus  saith  the  Lord,  With 
these  shalt  thou  push  the  Syrians,  until  they  be  consumed. 
And  all  the  prophets  prophesied  so,  saying,  Go  up  to  n 
Ramoth-gilead,  and  prosper :  for  the  Lord  shall  deliver 
it  into  the  hand  of  the  king.     And  the  messenger  that  12 
went  to  call  Micaiah  spake  to  him,  saying,  Behold,  the 
words  of  the  prophets  declare  good  to  the  king  with  one 

though  it  must  have  been  mingled  with  heterodox  elements. 
Indeed  this  was  the  very  period  of  Elijah's  greatest  activity.  Yet 
thereluctanceof  Jehoshaphat  to  accept  the  verdict  of  the  400  prophets 
implies  that  they  stood  in  a  false  relationship  to  Jehovah,  probably 
compromising  with  the  cults  of  Phoenicia. 

*J.  Micaiah  the  son  of  Imla :  the  sole  man  among  the 
professional  prophets  who  was  known  as  a  fearless  and  discrimi- 
nating prophet  of  Jehovah. 

9.  The  two  kings  sat  in  state  at  the  city  gate  while  the  assembled 
prophets  urged  them  to  proceed  against  Ramoth.  The  most 
zealous  of  these  enthusiasts  was  one  Zedekiah,  who  made  use  of 
the  symbolical  horns  of  iron  to  drive  home  his  opinions. 


252  II   CHRONICLES  18.  13-19.     H 

mouth  :  let  thy  word  therefore,  I  pray  thee,  be  like  one  of 

13  theirs,  and  speak  thou  good.     And  Micaiah  said,  As  the 

14  Lord  Hveth,  what  my  God  saith,  that  will  I  speak.  And 
when  he  was  come  to  the  king,  the  king  said  unto  him, 
Micaiah,  shall  we  go  to  Ramoth-gilead  to  battle,  or  shall  I 
forbear  ?  And  he  said,  Go  ye  up,  and  prosper ;  and  they 

15  shall  be  delivered  into  your  hand.  And  the  king  said  to 
him,  How  many  times  shall  I  adjure  thee  that  thou  speak 
unto  me  nothing  but  the  truth  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  ? 

16  And  he  said,  I  saw  all  Israel  scattered  upon  the  moun- 
tains, as  sheep  that  have  no  shepherd :  and  the  Lord 
said.  These  have  no  master ;  let  them  return  every  man 

17  to  his  house  in  peace.  And  the  king  of  Israel  said  to 
Jehoshaphat,   Did  I   not  tell  thee  that   he  would   not 

18  prophesy  good  concerning  me,  but  evil?  And  he  said, 
Therefore  hear  ye  the  word  of  the  Lord  :  I  saw  the 
Lord  sitting  upon  his  throne,  and  all  the  host  of  heaven 

19  standing  on  his  right  hand  and  on  his  left.  And  the 
Lord  said.  Who  shall  entice  Ahab  king  of  Israel,  that  he 
may  go  up  and  fall  at  Ramoth-gilead?  And  one  spake 
saying  after  this  manner,  and  another  saying  after  that 

12.  speak  thou  gfood :  an  official  endeavour  to  influence  Micaiah 
to  fall  in  with  the  verdict  of  the  royal  prophets. 

14.  Go  ye  up,  and  prosper.  Micaiah's  first  response  is  so 
evidently  a  mocking  echo  of  the  professional  prophets  that  Ahab 
refuses  to  receive  it  as  his  genuine  message. 

16.  Micaiah  relates  the  first  of  two  visions.  He  pictures 
Israel  as  a  scattered  flock,  thereby  clearly  indicating  that  the 
campaign  should  cost  Ahab  his  life.  Tlie  use  of  the  word 
*  shepherd  '  for  an  eastern  king  was  quite  common. 

xviii.  18-22.  Micaiah's  second  vision  is  related  to  account  for 
the  words  of  the  '  false  '  prophets.  They  were  inspired  by  a  spirit 
of  falsehood,  whose  activity  was  permitted  by  Jehovah  as  a  means 
of  carrying  out  the  divine  purpose  towards  Ahab. 

18.  the  LORD  sitting  upon  his  throne  :  Micaiah  depicts  the 
roval  council  of  the  heavens. 


II   CHRONICLES  18.  20-29.     H  253 

manner.     And    there   came   forth   a   spirit,    and    stood  20 
before  the  Lord,  and  said,  I  will  entice  him.     And  the 
Lord  said  unto  him,  Wherewith  ?      And  he  said,  I  will  go  2 1 
forth,  and  will  be  a  lying  spirit  in  the  mouth  of  all 
his   prophets.     And   he   said.   Thou  shalt   entice   him, 
and  shalt  prevail  also  :  go  forth,  and  do  so.     Now  there-  22 
fore,  behold,  the  Lord  hath  put  a  lying  spirit  in  the 
mouth  of  these  thy  prophets  ;  and  the  Lord  hath  spoken 
evil  concerning  thee.     Then  Zedekiah  the  son  of  Che-  23 
naanah  came  near,  and  smote  Micaiah  upon  the  cheek, 
and  said,  Which  way  went  the  spirit  of  the  Lord  from  me 
to  speak  unto  thee?   And  Micaiah  said,  Behold,  thou  24 
shalt  see  on  that  day,  when  thou  shalt  go  into  an  inner 
chamber  to  hide  thyself.     And  the  king  of  Israel  said,  25 
Take  ye  Micaiah,  and  carry  him  back  unto  Anion  the 
governor  of  the  city,  and  to  Joash  the  king's  son ;  and  26 
say,  Thus  saith  the  king,  Put  this  fellow  in  the  prison,  and 
feed   him   with    bread    of  affliction    and  with  water  of 
affliction,  until  I  return  in  peace.     And  Micaiah  said,  27 
If  thou  return  at  all  in  peace,  the  Lord  hath  not  spoken 
by  me.     And  he  said,  Hear_,  ye  peoples,  all  of  you. 

So  the  king  of  Israel  and  Jehoshaphat  the  king  of  28 
Judah  went   up  to   Ramoth-gilead.     And   the  king  of  29 

23.  the  spirit  of  the  ZiOKD  :  even  Zedekiah  regards  the 
Spirit  of  Jehovah  as  the  author  of  his  message. 

24.  Micaiah's  answer  is  a  vivid  picture  of  the  false  prophet 
fleeing  after  the  military  disaster.  The  sign  given  was  definite 
and  personal. 

27.  Hear,  ye  peoples,  all  of  you :  as  these  words  form  the  open- 
ing sentences  of  the  prophec.y  of  Micah  (cf.  Mic.  i.  2)  they  have 
probably  entered  the  text  of  i  Kings  (where  the  LXX  omits  them) 
by  way  of  a  marginal  gloss. 

xviii.  28-34.  Battle  of  Ranioth.  Ahab  enters  the  battle  in 
disguise.  He  is  sought  out  by  the  Syrian  captains,  who  mistake 
Jehoshaphat  for  him,  and  the  Judean  king  narrowly  escapes. 


254       11    CHRONICLES  18.  30— 19.  i.   H  Ch 

Israel  said  unto  Jehoshaphat,  I  will  disguise  myself, 
and  go  into  the  battle ;  but  put  thou  on  thy  robes.  So 
the  king  of  Israel  disguised  himself;  and  they  went  into 

30  the  battle.  Now  the  king  of  Syria  had  commanded 
the  captains  of  his  chariots,  saying,  Fight  neither  with 

31  small  nor  great,  save  only  with  the  king  of  Israel.  And 
it  came  to  pass,  when  the  captains  of  the  chariots  saw 
Jehoshaphat,  that  they  said.  It  is  the  king  of  Israel. 
Therefore  they  turned  about  to  fight  against  him :  but 
Jehoshaphat  cried  out,  and  the  Lord  helped  him ;  and 

32  God  moved  them  to  depart  from  him.  And  it  came 
to  pass,  when  the  captains  of  the  chariots  saw  that  it  was 
not   the   king   of   Israel,   that   they   turned   back   from 

33  pursuing  him.  And  a  certain  man  drew  his  bow  at 
a  venture,  and  smote  the  king  of  Israel  between  the 
joints  of  the  harness :  wherefore  he  said  to  the  driver  of 
the  chariot.  Turn  thine  hand,  and  carry  me  out  of  the 

34  host  \  for  I  am  sore  wounded.  And  the  battle  increased 
that  day  :  howbeit  the  king  of  Israel  stayed  himself  up  in 
his  chariot  against  the  Syrians  until  the  even  :  and  about 
the  time  of  the  going  down  of  the  sun  he  died. 

19      [Ch]  And  Jehoshaphat  the  king  of  Judah  returned 

Ahab,  however,  receives  a  mortal  wound  from  a  random  arrow 
and  dies  at  sunset. 

29.  I  will  disguise  myself :  Ahab  thought  thus  to  defeat  the 
evil  prognostications  of  Micaiah. 

31.  turned  about:  better  'surrounded  him.'  The  Syrian 
captains  beset  Jehoshaphat  on  all  sides.  Seeing  his  danger  he 
called  out  to  rally  his  men  and  Jehovah  turned  the  Syrian  on- 
set back. 

33.  the  joints  of  the  harness  :  Ahab  received  the  fatal  wound 
between  the  plates  of  his  armour.     His  death  occurred  at  sunset, 
out  of  the  host :  LXX,  '  out  of  the  battle.' 

xix.     Prophetic  Rebuke  leads  to  Reforms. 

This  chapter  appears  to  be  the  independent  work  of  the 
chronicler.     It  records  the  rebuke  of  Jehoshaphat  by  the  prophet 


II   CHRONICLES  19.  2-6.     Ch  255 

to  his  house  in  peace  to  Jerusalem.  And  Jehu  the  2 
son  of  Hanani  the  seer  went  out  to  meet  him,  and  said  to 
king  Jehoshaphat,  Shouldest  thou  help  the  wicked,  and 
love  them  that  hate  the  Lord?  for  this  thing  wrath 
is  upon  thee  from  before  the  Lord.  Nevertheless  there  3 
are  good  things  found  in  thee,  in  that  thou  hast  put  away 
the  Asheroth  out  of  the  land,  and  hast  set  thine  heart  to 
seek  God. 

And  Jehoshaphat  dwelt  at  Jerusalem  :  and  he  went  out  4 
again  among   the  people  from   Beer-sheba  to  the  hill 
country  of  Ephraim,  and  brought  them  back  unto  the 
Lord,  the  God  of  their  fathers.      And  he  set  judges  5 
in  the  land  throughout  all  the  fenced  cities  of  Judah, 
city  by  city,  and  said  to  the  judges,  Consider  what  ye  do  :  6 
for  ye  judge  not  for  man,  but  for  the  Lord  ;  and  he  is  with 

Jehu  for  his  alliance  with  Ahab  and  describes  the  effect  of  that 
rebuke  as  a  new  zeal  for  the  glory  of  Jehovah.  Jehoshaphat 
proceeds  from  good  to  better  and  proves  an  apt  learner  in  the 
school  of  divine  discipline. 

xix.  1-3.     JehtCs  Rebuke. 

2.  Jehu,  the  son  of  Hanani :  a  prophet  of  eminence  in  the 
times  of  Baasha  and  of  Jehoshaphat :  he  opposed  the  sin  of 
Baasha  (i  Kings  xvi.  1-12)  ;  he  condemned  Asa's  alliance  with 
Syria  (2  Chron.  xvi.  7  ff.)  ;  and  he  now  appears  to  rebuke  the 
unhallowed  alliance  of  Jehoshaphat.  He  is  also  named  in  2  Chron. 
XX.  34  as  an  historian.  His  rebuke  of  Jehoshaphat  is  marked  by 
its  reasonable  tone  and  its  evident  admiration  of  the  monarch  who 
has  temporarily  erred. 

xix.  4-1 1.  Revival  of  Religion  and  Justice.  Possibly  we  have 
here  a  reflection  of  the  post-exilic  system,  according  to  which  each 
town  had  its  own  synagogue  and  its  own  Sanhedrin  for  the 
administration  of  justice.     So  Kittel  surmises. 

4.  he  went  out  agfain  :  cf.  xvii.  7  ff.  Jehoshaphat  once  more 
inaugurated  a  revival  of  religion  and  justice  throughout  his 
dominions. 

5.  the  fenced  cities :  would  be  chosen  for  the  residence  of  the 
official  judge  as  centres  of  districts. 

6.  he  is  with  you  in  the  judg-ement :  one  notes  the  same 
idea  here  as  in  our  early  trial  by  ordeal. 


256  II   CHRONICLES  19.  7-11.     Ch 

^  you  in  the  judgement.  Now  therefore  let  the  fear  of  the 
Lord  be  upon  you ;  take  heed  and  do  it :  for  there  is  no 
iniquity  with  the  Lord  our  God,  nor  respect  of  persons, 

8  nor  taking  of  gifts.  Moreover  in  Jerusalem  did  Jehosha- 
phat  set  of  the  Levites  and  the  priests,  and  of  the  heads 
of  the  fathers'  houses  of  Israel,  for  the  judgement  of 
the  Lord,  and  for  controversies.     And  they  returned 

9  to  Jerusalem.  And  he  charged  them,  saying,  Thus  shall 
ye  do  in  the  fear  of  the  Lord,  faithfully,  and  with  a 

TO  perfect  heart.  And  whensoever  any  controversy  shall 
come  to  you  from  your  brethren  that  dwell  in  their  cities, 
between  blood  and  blood,  between  law  and  command- 
ment, statutes  and  judgements,  ye  shall  warn  them,  that 
they  be  not  guilty  towards  the  Lord,  and  so  wrath  come 
upon  you  and  upon  your  brethren  :  this  do,  and  ye  shall 

II  not  be  guilty.  And,  behold,  Amariah  the  chief  priest 
is  over  you  in  all  matters  of  the  Lord  ;  and  Zebadiah 
the  son  of  Ishmael,  the  ruler  of  the  house  of  Judah,  in 
all  the  king's  matters  :  also  the  Levites  shall  be  officers 
before  you.  Deal  courageously,  and  the  Lord  be  with 
the  good. 


8.  in  Jerusalem :  the  supreme  court  of  justice  had  its  station 
at  the  capital,  where  the  legal  duties  were  entrusted  to  a  mixed 
commission  of  Levites,  priests,  and  lay-princes. 

And  they  returned  to  Jerusalem :  the  phrase  as  it  stands  is 
disconnected  and  ambiguous.  It  is  better  to  follow  the  Syriac 
and  connect  it  with  verse  9,  reading  '  When  they  returned  to 
Jerusalem  he  charged  them.' 

10.  between  blood  and  blood  :  i.  e.  criminal  cases  of  murder,  &c. 

H.  The  high  court  of  justice  was  fully  organized.  The  high- 
priest,  Amariah,  was  supreme  judge  in  all  ecclesiastical  cases, 
and  Zebadiah,  a  prince  of  Judah,  in  all  civil  cases  ;  all  lesser 
offices  fell  to  the  Levites.  Amariah  must  not  be  confounded  with 
the  high-priest  of  the  same  name  in  i  Chron.  v,  37  ;  but,  on  the 
other  hand,  Zebadiah  may  be  identical  with  the  Levite  so  named 
in  2  Chron.  xvii.  8. 


II    CHRONICLES  20.  r-3.     Ch  257 

And  it  came  to  pass  after  this,  that  the  children  of  20 
Moab,  and  the  children  of  Ammon,  and  with  them  some 
of  the  Ammonites,  came  against  Jehoshaphat  to  battle. 
Then  there  came  some   that  told  Jehoshaphat,  saying,  2 
There  cometh  a  great  multitude  against  thee  from  beyond 
the  sea  from  Syria;  and,  behold,  they  be  in  Hazazon-tamar 
(the  same  is  En-gedi).     And  Jehoshaphat  feared,  and  3 
set  himself  to  seek  unto  the  Lord  ;  and  he  proclaimed  a 

XX.    Jehoshaphafs  Victory  over  the  Triple  Alliance. 

The  entire  chapter  is  a  remarkable  illustration  of  what  is  known 
as  midrash,  or  the  rehgious  reading  of  history. 

XX.  I,  2.     News  of  Coming  Invasion. 

1.  after  this:  a  general  expression  locating  the  incident  in  the 
latter  part  of  Jehoshaphat's  reign.  The  invaders  formed  a  triple 
alliance,  but  considerable  obscurity  surrounds  the  name  of  the 
third  member  of  the  league.  The  R.  V.  reads  '  some  of  the 
Ammonites,'  a  reading  secured  by  reversing  the  order  of  two 
letters  in  the  Hebrew  name  (D'2iro  m^'untm  has  become  wiyov 
'Amdnim),  and  which  is  simply  nonsense  in  connexion  with  the 
two  powers  already  named,  Moab  and  Ammon.  In  the  marg.  of  the 
R.  v.,  however,  we  read,  with  the  LXX,  '  Meunim '  ;  and  we  are 
compelled  to  thus  take  the  word  as  the  name  of  a  distinct  tribe. 
The  Meunim  are  mentioned  in  i  Chron.  iv.  41  as  playing  a  part 
in  the  exploits  of  the  Simeonites  during  Hezekiah's  reign,  and 
they  are  again  mentioned  in  2  Chron.  xxvi.  7  during  Uzziah's 
reign.  From  the  references  in  the  present  chapter  they  evidently 
occupied  a  district  of  Mount  Seir  and  may  be  regarded  as  bedouin 
hordes  of  Arabian  extraction. 

2.  from  beyond  the  sea :  i.  e.  the  Dead  Sea. 

from  Syria :  probably  we  should  read  *  from  Edom,'  by  the 
change  of  a  single  consonant  (ms!  becoming  din). 

En-g-edi:  now  'Ain  Jide,  above  the  western  shore  of  the 
Dead  Sea,  fifteen  miles  from  Jerusalem.  The  Wady  Hasaseh 
runs  thence  into  the  interior  of  the  Judean  hills,  and  gives  rise  to 
the  alternative  name. 

XX.  3-13.     Panic  in  Jerusalem.. 

3.  proclaimed  a  fast:  the  suddenness  of  the  inroad  and  the 
magnitude  of  the  invading  forces  paralysed  king  and  people  with 
fear.  It  was  evidently  an  occasion  when  military  force  was 
useless   and  only  the  divine   interposition   could  avail.     Hence 


258  II   CHRONICLES  20.  4-12.     Ch 

4  fast  throughout  all  Judah.  And  Judah  gathered  them- 
selves together,  to  seek  help  of  the  Lord  :  even  out  of  all 

5  the  cities  of  Judah  they  came  to  seek  the  Lord.  And 
Jehoshaphat  stood  in  the  congregation  of  Judah  and 
Jerusalem,  in  the  house  of  the  Lord,  before  the  new 

6  court ',  and  he  said,  O  Lord,  the  God  of  our  fathers,  art 
not  thou  God  in  heaven  ?  and  art  not  thou  ruler  over  all 
the  kingdoms  of  the  nations  ?  and  in  thine  hand  is  power 

7  and  might,  so  that  none  is  able  to  withstand  thee.  Didst 
not  thou,  O  our  God,  drive  out  the  inhabitants  of  this 
land  before  thy  people  Israel,  and  gavest  it  to  the  seed  of 

8  Abraham  thy  friend  for  ever  ?  And  they  dwelt  therein,  and 
have  built  thee  a  sanctuary  therein  for  thy  name,  saying, 

9  If  evil  come  upon  us,  the  sword,  judgement,  or  pestilence, 
or  famine,  we  will  stand  before  this  house,  and  before 
thee,  (for  thy  name  is  in  this  house,)  and  cry  unto  thee 

10  in  our  affliction,  and  thou  wilt  hear  and  save.  And  now, 
behold,  the  children  of  Ammon  and  Moab  and  mount 
Seir,  whom  thou  wouldest  not  let  Israel  invade,  when 
they  came  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt,  but  they  turned 

1 1  aside  from  them,  and  destroyed  them  not ;  behold,  how 
they  reward  us,  to  come  to  cast  us  out  of  thy  possession, 

12  which  thou  hast  given  us  to  inherit.  O  our  God,  wilt 
thou  not  judge  them  ?  for  we  have  no  might  against  this 
great  company  that  cometh  against  us ;  neither  know  we 

from  all  the  cities  of  the  kingdom  the  people  hasten  to  the  capital 
to  the  national  fast. 

5.  before  the  new  court :  we  have  no  account  of  any  additional 
buildings  to  the  Temple,  so  that  we  conclude  that  the  chronicler 
is  indicating  the  spot  occupied  in  his  own  day  by  *  the  new  court ' 
and  representing  the  '  great  court'  of  Solomon's  Temple  (2  Chron. 
iv.  9). 

6-12.  Jehoshaphat's  prayer  is  a  narrative  of  the  providence  of 
God  in  the  nation's  past  and  a  statement  of  present  circumstances, 
closing  with  an  appeal  for  divine  help. 


II   CHRONICLES  20.  13-19.     Ch  259 

what  to  do  :  but  our  eyes  are  upon  thee.     And  all  Judah  13 
stood  before  the  Lord,  with  their  little  ones,  their  wives, 
and  their  children.     Then   upon   Jahaziel   the   son   of  14 
Zechariah,  the  son  of  Benaiah,  the  son  of  Jeiel,  the  son 
of  Mattaniah,  the  Levite,  of  the  sons  of  Asaph,  came 
the  spirit  of  the  Lord  in  the  midst  of  the  congregation : 
and  he  said.  Hearken  ye,  all  Judah,  and  ye  inhabitants  15 
of  Jerusalem,  and  thou  king  Jehoshaphat :  thus  saith  the 
Lord  unto  you.  Fear  not   ye,  neither  be  dismayed  by 
reason  of  this  great  multitude ;  for  the  battle  is  not  yours, 
but  God's.     To-morrow  go  ye  down  against  them  :  behold,  16 
they  come  up  by  the  ascent  of  Ziz ;  and  ye  shall  find  them 
at  the  end  of  the  valley,  before  the  wilderness  of  Jeruel. 
Ye  shall  not  need  to  fight  in  this  battle-,  set  yourselves,  i? 
stand  ye  still,  and  see  the  salvation  of  the  Lord  with  you, 
O  Judah   and   Jerusalem :  fear  not,  nor  be  dismayed : 
to-morrow  go  out  against  them ;  for  the  Lord  is  with 
you.     And  Jehoshaphat  bowed  his  head  with  his  face  to  1 8 
the  ground  :   and  all  Judah    and    the   inhabitants   of 
Jerusalem  fell  down  before  the  Lord,  worshipping  the 
Lord.     And  the  Levites,  of  the  children  of  the  Kohath-  19 

13.  all  Judah  stood  toefore  the  ZiORD  :  i.  e.  in  the  attitude  of 
supplication. 

XX.  14-19.     The  Response  of  Jehovah. 

14.  Then  upon  Jahaziel  .  .  .  came  the  spirit  of  the  IiOItD  : 

God  answered,  not  by  fire  as  in  the  case  of  Solomon's  prayer,  but 
by  the  living  voice  of  prophecy.  From  the  assembled  multitude 
stepped  forth  a  Levite,  a  member  of  the  guild  of  musicians,  who 
delivered  the  promise  of  divine  help.  Jahaziel  must  have  been 
a  specially  interesting  character  to  the  chronicler,  to  whose  own 
class  \iz  belonged. 

16.  the  ascent  of  Ziz :  read  '  the  ascent  of  Hazziz.'  It  is  not 
possible  to  absolutely  identify  either  the  ascent  of  Hazziz  (although 
this  is  usually  considered  to  be  the  Wady  Husasa)  or  the  wilderness 
of  Jeruel.  The  direction  indicated  seems  to  be  the  north  end  of 
the  Dead  Sea,  towards  Tekoa. 

19.  The    worship   of   the    people,    following   the    promise   of 

S    2 


26o  II    CHRONICLES  20.  20-22.     Ch 

ites  and  of  the  children  of  the  Korahites,  stood  up  to 
praise  the  Lord,  the  God  of  Israel,  with  an  exceeding 

20  loud  voice.  And  they  rose  early  in  the  morning,  and 
went  forth  into  the  wilderness  of  Tekoa  :  and  as  they 
went  forth,  Jehoshaphat  stood  and  said.  Hear  me,  O 
Judah,  and  ye  inhabitants  of  Jerusalem;  believe  in  the 
Lord  your  God,  so  shall  ye  be  established ;  believe  his 

21  prophets,  so  shall  ye  prosper.  And  when  he  had  taken 
counsel  with  the  people,  he  appointed  them  that  should 
sing  unto  the  Lord,  and  praise  the  beauty  of  holiness, 
as  they  went  out  before  the  army,  and  say.  Give  thanks 

22  unto  the  Lord  ;  for  his  mercy  endureth  for  ever.  And 
when  they  began  to  sing  and  to  praise,  the  Lord  set  liers 
in  wait  against  the  children  of  Ammon,  Moab,  and  mount 

deliverance,  expresses  itself  in  the  music  of  the  Levitic  psalms. 
The  chronicler's  hand  is  evident  in  this. 

XX.  20-30.  Jehovah's  Deliverance.  While  Judah  was  turning 
to  prayer  the  power  of  Jehovah  was  working  for  their  deliverance. 
The  allied  forces  fall  upon  one  another  and  work  a  mutual 
destruction.  Judah  subsequently  arrives  on  the  scene  only  to 
behold  the  results  of  the  carnage  and  to  collect  the  spoil. 

20.  The  king  exhorted  the  procession  of  the  people  to  show 
a  strong  faith  in  Jehovah's  promised  deliverance.  He  probably 
stood  at  the  city  gate  reviewing  the  march  past. 

21.  The  great  procession  is  marshalled,  with  Levitic  singers  at 
its  head,  to  advance  with  praise  to  the  spot  indicated  by  the 
prophet  Jahaziel. 

praise  the  beauty  of  holiitess:  read  as R.V.  margin,  'praise 
i%t  the  beauty  of  holiness,'  as  referring  to  the  gorgeous  robes  of 
the  singers. 

and  say,  Give  thanks,  &c.  :  although  the  words  occur  only 
in  Psalms  usually  reckoned  as  post-exilic  (cvi,  cvii,  cxviii,  and 
cxxxvi)  they  were  probably  found  in  earlier  Hebrew  psalmody. 

22.  liers  in  wait:  who  these  were  it  is  impossible  to  ascertain. 
The  most  probable  conjecture  regards  them  as  some  of  the  in- 
habitants of  Mount  Seir  itself,  who,  greedy  of  spoil,  set  an  ambush 
and  by  a  sudden  onset  terrorized  the  armies.  We  see  (verse  23) 
that  the  first  result  was  that  Ammon  and  Moab  turned  their  arms 
against  Seir  (i.  e.  the  Meunim)  and  then  slaughtered  one  another. 


II   CHRONICLES  20.  23-29.     Ch  261 

Seir,  which  were  come  against   Judah ;  and   they  were 
smitten.     For  the  children  of  Ammon  and  Moab  stood  23 
up  against  the  inhabitants  of  mount  Seir,  utterly  to  slay 
and  destroy  them :  and  when  they  had  made  an  end  ot 
the  inhabitants   of  Seir,  every   one   helped   to   destroy 
another.    And  when  Judah  came  to  the  watch-tower  of  the  24 
wilderness,  they  looked  upon  the  multitude ;  and,  behold, 
they  were  dead  bodies  fallen  to  the  earth,  and  there  were 
none   that   escaped.     And  when   Jehoshaphat   and   his  25 
people  came  to  take  the  spoil  of  them,  they  found  among 
them  in  abundance  both  riches   and  dead  bodies,  and 
precious  jewels,  which  they  stripped  off  for  themselves, 
more  than  they  could  carry  away :  and  they  were  three 
days  in  taking  of  the  spoil,  it  was  so  much.     And  on  the  26 
fourth  day  they  assembled  themselves  in  the  valley  of 
Beracah  ;  for  there  they  blessed  the  Lord  :  therefore  the 
name  of  that  place  was  called   The  valley  of  Beracah, 
unto  this  day.     Then  they  returned,  every  man  of  Judah  27 
and  Jerusalem,  and  Jehoshaphat  in  the  forefront  of  them, 
to  go  again  to  Jerusalem  with  joy ;  for  the  Lord  had 
made  them  to  rejoice  over   their   enemies.     And   they  28 
came  to  Jerusalem  with  psalteries  and  harps  and  trumpets 
unto  the  house  of  the  Lord.     And  the  fear  of  God  was  29 

24.  the  watch-tower  of  the  wilderness  :  probably  the  summit    . 
of  the  hills  around  Tekoa  overlooking  the  plain  of  Jeruel,  about 
ten  miles  south  of  Jerusalem.     Below  lay  the  scene  of  carnage. 

25.  riches  and  dead  "bodies :  read  with  R.  V,  margin,  ^  riches 
and  raiment.' 

26.  in  the  valley  of  Beracah:  between  Gedor  and  Tekoa, 
where  a  wady  and  a  ruin  still  bear  the  name  '  Bereikut.'  Here 
the  men  of  Judah  regathered  to  praise  Jehovah  after  three  days 
spent  in  collecting  the  spoil ;  from  this  incident  the  spot  received 
its  name  '  the  valley  of  blessing,'  and  retained  it  until  the  time 
of  the  chronicler. 

27.  The  people  return  to  Jerusalem  with  songs  of  praise. 

28.  This  remarkable  deliverance  so  impressed  the  surrounding 


262      II   CHRONICLES  20.  30-35.     Ch  11  Ch'-^  Ch 

on  all  the  kingdoms  of  the  countries,  when  they  heard 

30  that  the  Lord  fought  against  the  enemies  of  Israel.  So 
the  realm  of  Jehoshaphat  was  quiet :  for  his  God  gave 
him  rest  round  about. 

3 1  [H]  And  Jehoshaphat  reigned  over  Judah :  he  was 
thirty  and  five  years  old  when  he  began  to  reign  ;  and 
he  reigned  twenty  and  five  years  in  Jerusalem :  and  his 

32  mother's  name  was  Azubah  the  daughter  of  Shilhi.  And 
he  walked  in  the  way  of  Asa  his  father,  and  turned  not 
aside  from  it,  doing  that  which  was  right  in  the  eyes  of 

33  the  Lord.  Howbeit  the  high  places  were  not  taken 
away  ;  neither  as  yet  had  the  people  set  their  hearts  unto 

34  the  God  of  their  fathers.  [Ch^]  Now  the  rest  of  the  acts 
of  Jehoshaphat,  first  and  last,  behold,  they  are  written  in 
the  history  of  Jehu  the  son  of  Hanani,  which  is  inserted 
in  the  book  of  the  kings  of  Israel. 

35  [Ch]  And  after  this  did  Jehoshaphat  king  of  Judah 
join  himself  with  Ahaziah  king  of  Israel;  the  same  did 

nations  that  none  dared  to  make  war  on  Judah  during  the  remainder 
of  Jehoshaphat's  reign. 

XX.  31-34.  Close  of  the  Reign.  With  this  summary  of  the  ideal 
reign  of  Jehoshaphat  we  may  compare  i  Kings  xxii.  41-43.  45- 
49. 

33.  the  Mg-h  places  were  not  taken  away :  this  seems  to  be 
a  direct  contradiction  of  the  foregoing  narratives  of  reform. 
Divergence  of  sources  is  very  evident;  and  perhaps  the  chronicler 
never  meant  to  harmonize  the  estimates,  but  merely  to  leave  both 
accounts  on  record. 

34.  in  the  history  of  Jehu  :  cf.  Introd.  §  iv. 

XX.  35-37.  Mercantile  Alliance  with  Ahaziah.  The  account  of 
the  attempt  to  reopen  the  trade  with  Ophir  is  given  here  some- 
what differently  from  i  Kings,  although  the  so-called  contra- 
dictions are  perfectly  explicable  on  the  ground  of  incompleteness 
in  both  narratives.  In  i  Kings  Jehoshaphat  first  set  himself  to 
build  ships  independently,  and  when  these  were  wrecked  he 
refused  to  join  Ahaziah  in  a  second  attempt.  The  chronicler 
represents  the  first  attempt  as  being  made  in  alliance  with  Ahaziah 


II  CHRONICLES  20.  36— 21.  4.  Ch  Ch^  Ch  H  Ch    263 

very  wickedly  :  [Ch^]  and  he  joined  himself  with  him  to  36 
make  ships  to  go  to  Tarshish :  and  they  made  the  ships 
in  Ezion-geber.  [Ch]  Then  Eliezer  the  son  of  Dodavahu  37 
of  Mareshah  prophesied  against  Jehoshaphat,  saying, 
Because  thou  hast  joined  thyself  with  Ahaziah,  the  Lord 
hath  destroyed  thy  works.  And  the  ships  were  broken, 
that  they  were  not  able  to  go  to  Tarshish. 

[H]  And  Jehoshaphat  slept  with  his  fathers,  and  was  21 
buried  with  his  fathers  in  the  city  of  David  :  and  Jehoram 
his  son  reigned  in  his  stead.     [Ch]  And  he  had  brethren  2 
the    sons   of    Jehoshaphat,    Azariah,   and    Jehiel,    and 
Zechariah,  and  Azariah,  and  Michael,  and  Shephatiah : 
all  these  were  the  sons  of  Jehoshaphat  king  of  Israel. 
And  their  father  gave  them  great  gifts,  of  silver,  and  of  gold,  3 
and  of  precious  things,  with  fenced  cities  in  Judah  :  but 
the  kingdom  gave  he  to  Jehoram,  because  he  was  the 
firstborn.     Now  when  Jehoram  was  risen  up  over  the  4 
kingdom  of  his  father,  and  had  strengthened  himself,  he 
slew  all  his  brethren  with  the  sword,  and  divers  also  of 


and  traces  the  disaster  to  the  sin  of  that  alliance.     The  changed 
view-point  fully  accords  with  the  chronicler's  ideas  of  retribution. 

36.  to  go  to  Tarshish:  cf.  note  on  ix.  21. 

37.  Eliezer :  an  otherwise  unknown  prophet. 

(6)  xxi.     Reign  of  Jehoram. 

Almost  the  entire  material  of  this  chapter  is  new  to  us  ;  but  a 
few  verses  are  paralleled  by  Kings  (cf.  i  Kings  xxii.  50,  2  Kings 
viii,  17-22,  24).  Jehoram  is  conspicuously  a  bad  king,  as  one 
would  expect  of  a  son-in-law  of  Ahab.  His  reign  opens  with  the 
massacre  of  his  brothers,  and  is  a  record  of  misdeeds,  idolatry,  and 
revolution. 

xxi.   1-4.     Opening  of  Jehoram^ s  Reign. 

2.  Jehoshaphat  king  of  Israel:  an  unusual  designation  of  a 
king  of  Judah.  Either  we  must  read  'Judah/  or  else  trace  the 
title  to  the  chronicler's  habit  of  ignoring  the  northern  kingdom. 

4.  he  slew  all  his  brethren:  in  this  Jehoram  acted  in  perfect 


264        II   CHRONICLES  21.  5-II.     Ch  H  Ch 

5  the  princes  of  Israel.  [H]  Jehoram  was  thirty  and  two 
years  old  when  he  began  to  reign ;  and  he  reigned  eight 

6  years  in  Jerusalem.  And  he  walked  in  the  way  of  the 
kings  of  Israel,  as  did  the  house  of  Ahab :  for  he  had 
the  daughter  of  Ahab  to  wife :  and  he  did  that  which 

jr  was  evil  in  the  sight  of  the  Lord.  Howbeit  the  Lord 
would  not  destroy  the  house  of  David,  because  of  the 
covenant  that  he  had  made  with  David,  and  as  he 
promised  to  give  a  lamp  to  him  and  to  his  children 

8  alway.     In  his  days  Edom  revolted  from  under  the  hand 

9  of  Judah,  and  made  a  king  over  themselves.  Then 
Jehoram  passed  over  with  his  captains,  and  all  his 
chariots  with  him  :  and  he  rose  up  by  night,  and  smote 
the  Edomites  which  compassed  him  about,  and  the  cap- 

10  tains  of  the  chariots.  So  Edom  revolted  from  under  the 
hand  of  Judah,  unto  this  day  :  then  did  Libnah  revolt  at 
the  same  time  from  under  his  hand :    because  he  had 

1 1  forsaken  the  Lord,  the  God  of  his  fathers.  [Ch]  More- 
over he  made  high  places  in  the  mountains  of  Judah, 
and  made  the  inhabitants  of  Jerusalem  to  go  a  whoring, 

harmony  with  the  Oriental  custom  of  removing  possible  claimants 
to  the  throne  ;  moreover,  he  had  the  precedent  of  Solomon. 

xxi.  5-1 1.  Character  of  J ehoranCs  Reign.  The  passage  is  parallel 
to  2  Kings  viii.  17-22,  with  few  alterations. 

6.  the  dang-hter  of  Ahab:  i.  e.  Athaliah  ;  cf.  xxii,  2. 

8.  The  revolt  of  Edom  is  a  clear  indication  of  Judah's  declining 
power. 

9.  Jehoram  attempted  to  reduce  Edom  by  a  night  attack,  but 
was  himself  surrounded.  The  disaster  is  implied  rather  than 
described. 

10.  Iiibnah :  the  site  of  this  lowland  fortress  has  not  yet  been 
identified.  It  must  have  been  near  Lachish,  close  to  the  Philistine 
borders. 

because  he  had  forsaken  the  LORD :  the  chronicler  adds 
this  comment  to  the  narrative  of  i  Kings. 

11.  The  idolatrous  proclivities  of  Jehoram  led  to  an  actual 
revival  of  the  worship  at  the  illicit  high-places. 


II    CHRONICLES  21.  12-17.     Ch  265 

and  led  Judah  astray.     And  there  came  a  writing  to  him  12 
from  Elijah  the  prophet,  saying,  Thus  saith  the  Lord, 
the  God  of  David  thy  father,  Because  thou  hast  not 
walked  in  the  ways  of  Jehoshaphat  thy  father,  nor  in  the 
ways  of  Asa  king  of  Judah;  but  hast  walked  in  the  way  13 
of  the  kings  of  Israel,  and  hast  made  Judah  and  the 
inhabitants  of  Jerusalem  to  go  a  whoring,  like  as  the 
house  of  Ahab  did  ',  and  also  hast  slain  thy  brethren  of 
thy  father's  house,  which  were  better  than  thyself:  behold,  14 
the  Lord  will  smite  with  a  great  plague  thy  people,  and 
thy  children,  and  thy  wives,  and  all  thy  substance:  and  15 
thou  shalt  have  great  sickness  by  disease  of  thy  bowels, 
until  thy  bowels  fall  out  by  reason  of  the  sickness,  day  by 
day.     And  the  Lord  stirred  up  against  Jehoram  the  16 
spirit  of  the  Phihstines,  and  of  the  Arabians  which  are 
beside  the  Ethiopians  :  and  they  came  up  against  Judah,  1 7 
and  brake  into  it,  and  carried  away  all  the  substance 
that  was  found  in  the  king's  house,  and  his  sons  also,  and 

xxi.  12-19.  Elijah'' s  Letter.  There  is  considerable  difficulty  in 
connexion  with  this  letter  of  Elijah  to  Jehoram.  If  the  narrative 
of  2  Kings  is  in  chronological  order,  Elijah  had  been  dead  some 
time,  for  the  account  of  his  translation  is  given  between  the  reigns 
of  Jehoram  and  Ahaziah  of  Israel,  i.  e.  at  least  four  years  before 
the  accession  of  Jehoram  of  Judah.  But  no  date  is  mentioned,  and 
it  would  be  far  from  wise  to  insist  upon  the  chronological  accuracy 
of  the  author  of  Kings.  Hence,  if  we  accept  the  chronicler's 
narrative,  we  must  assume  that  Elijah  lived  some  years  beyond  the 
period  which  seems  to  be  indicated  for  his  translation  by  the  author 
of  Kings.  There  is,  therefore,  no  need  to  change  the  name  to  Elisha 
or  to  regard  the  narrative  as  a  late  invention. 

12.  Elijah  the  prophet:  with  the  exception  of  this  incident, 
the  chronicler  entirely  ignores  the  existence  of  the  great  prophets 
of  the  northern  kingdom.  The  letter  here  referred  to  pointed  out 
Jehoram's  sins  and  threatened  punishment  upon  his  realm  and 
himself. 

17.  in  the  king's  house :  this  does  not  necessarily  imply  the 
sack  of  Jerusalem,  for,  had  that  occurred,  it  would  surely  have  been 
specially  mentioned. 


266     II   CHRONICLES  21.  i8— 22.  2.     Ch  H 

his  wives ;  so  that  there  was  never  a  son  left  him,  save 

18  Jehoahaz,  the  youngest  of  his  sons.  And  after  all  this 
the  Lord  smote  him  in  his  bowels  with  an  incurable 

19  disease.  And  it  came  to  pass,  in  process  of  time,  at  the 
end  of  two  years,  that  his  bowels  fell  out  by  reason  of  his 
sickness,  and  he  died  of  sore  diseases.  And  his  people 
made  no  burning  for  him,  like  the  burning  of  his  fathers. 

20  Thirty  and  two  years  old  was  he  when  he  began  to  reign, 
and  he  reigned  in  Jerusalem  eight  years  :  and  he  departed 
without  being  desired ;  and  they  buried  him  in  the  city 
of  David,  but  not  in  the  sepulchres  of  the  kings. 

22  And  the  inhabitants  of  Jerusalem  made  Ahaziah  his 
youngest  son  king  in  his  stead :  for  the  band  of  men  that 
came  with  the  Arabians  to  the  camp  had  slain  all  the 
eldest.  So  Ahaziah  the  son  of  Jehoram  king  of  Judah 
2  reigned.  [H]  Forty  and  two  years  old  was  Ahaziah 
when  he  began  to  reign ;  and  he  reigned  one  year  in 
Jerusalem:  and   his   mother's   name  was  Athahah   the 

19.  Whatever  the  disease  was,  it  was  incurable  and  was 
regarded  as  a  retribution  on  a  wicked  reign. 

20.  departed  without  being'  desired :  a  very  obscure  phrase 
which  may  be  rendered  'he  behaved  so  as  to  please  no  one' 
(Bennett).  The  character  of  his  reign  is  well  shown  by  the 
refusal  of  the  people  to  bury  him  in  the  royal  tombs. 

(7)  xxii-xxiii.  Ahaziah  and  Athaliah. 
xxii.  1-9.  Reign  of  Ahaziah.  The  narrative  of  Ahaziah's 
uneventful  reign  finds  its  parallel  in  2  Kings  viii.  26-29.  The 
main  differences  lie  in  the  characteristic  comments  made  by  the 
chronicler  and  in  the  abbreviation  of  the  account  of  the  king's 
death. 

1.  Ahaziah:  843  b.  c.     In  xxi.  17  he  is  called  Jehoahaz. 
slain  all  the  eldest:  the  meaning  seems  to  be  that  a  scouting 

party  of  the  invaders  described  in  xxi.  16,  17  had  surprised  the 
camp  of  Judah  and  slain  the  royal  princes. 

2.  Porty  and  two  years  old :  an  evident  orthographical  error 
for  '  twenty  and  two.'     Cf.  2  Kings  viii.  26. 

Athaliah  the  daughter  of  Omri :  i.  e.  '  grand-daughter,'  as 
in  R.  V.  margin. 


II   CHRONICLES  22.  3-9.     H  Ch  267 

daughter  of  Omri.     He  also  walked  in  the  ways  of  the  3 
house  of  Ahab :  for  his  mother  was  his  counsellor  to  do 
wickedly.     And  he  did  that  which  was  evil  in  the  sight  4 
of  the  Lord,  as  did  the  house  of  Ahab  :  for  they  were 
his  counsellors   after   the   death   of  his   father,    to   his 
destruction.     He  walked  also  after  their  counsel,  and  5 
went  with  Jehoram  the  son  of  Ahab  king  of  Israel  to  war 
against  Hazael  king  of  Syria  at  Ramoth-gilead :  and  the 
Syrians  wounded  Joram.     And  he  returned  to  be  healed  6 
in  Jezreel  of  the  wounds  which  they  had  given  him  at 
Ramah,  when  he  fought  against  Hazael  king  of  Syria. 
And  Azariah  the  son  of  Jehoram  king  of  Judah  went 
down  to  see  Jehoram  the  son  of  Ahab  in  Jezreel,  because 
he  was  sick.     [Ch]  Now  the  destruction  of  Ahaziah  was  7 
of  God,  in  that  he  went  unto  Joram  :  for  when  he  was 
come,  he  went  out  with  Jehoram  against  Jehu  the  son  of 
Nimshi,  whom  the  Lord  had  anointed  to  cut  off  the 
house  of  Ahab.     And  it  came  to  pass,  when  Jehu  was  8 
executing  judgement  upon  the  house  of  Ahab,  that  he 
found  the  princes  of  Judah,  and  the  sons  of  the  brethren 
of  Ahaziah,    ministering   to   Ahaziah,    and   slew   them. 
And  he  sought  Ahaziah,  and  they  caught  him,  (now  he  9 
was  hiding  in  Samaria,)  and  they  brought  him  to  Jehu, 
and  slew  him  ;  and  they  buried  him,  for  they  said,  He  is 
the  son  of  Jehoshaphat,  who  sought  the  Lord  with  all 


6.  Jezreel:  the  modern  Zer'In  on  the  high  ground  near  Gilboa. 
Azariah :  read  Ahaziah. 

7-9.  The  death  of  Ahaziah  is  much  more  concisely  narrated 
than  in  2  Kings  ix,  where  the  conspiracy  of  Jehu  is  given  in 
detail.  The  chronicler  contents  himself  with  indicating  the  fact 
that  divine  retribution  was  displayed  in  the  tragedy  which  Jehu 
enacted. 

8.  the  sons  of  the  brethren  of  Ahaziah :  this  is  a  more  exact 
expression  of  the  relationship  than  that  of  2  Kings  x.  12-14. 


268  II  CHRONICLES  22.  lo— 23.  i.     Ch  H  Ch^  H  Ch^- 

his  heart.     And  the  house  of  Ahaziah  had  no  power  to 
hold  the  kingdom. 

10  [H]  Now  when  Athahah  the  mother  of  Ahaziah  saw 
that  her  son  was  dead,  she  arose  and  destroyed  all  the 

11  seed  royal  of  the  house  of  Judah.  But  Jehoshabeath,  the 
daughter  of  the  king,  took  Joash  the  son  of  Ahaziah,  and 
stole  him  away  from  among  the  king's  sons  that  were 
slain,  and  put  him  and  his  nurse  in  the  bedchamber. 
[Cli^]  So  Jehoshabeath,  the  daughter  of  king  Jehoram, 
the  wife  of  Jehoiada  the  priest,  (for  she  was  the  sister  of 
Ahaziah,)  hid  him  from  Athaliah,  so  that  she  slew  him 

12  not.  [H]  And  he  was  with  them  hid  in  the  house  of 
God  six  years :  and  Athaliah  reigned  over  the  land. 

23  [Ch^]  And  in  the  seventh  year  Jehoiada  strengthened 
himself,  and  took  the  captains  of  hundreds,  Azariah  the 


xxii.  IO-I2.  Athalialis  Usurpation.  Cf.  2  Kings  xi,  1-3.  The 
queen-mother,  on  hearing  of  Ahaziah's  death,  made  good  her  own 
position  by  extirpating  all  the  royal  princes.  The  one  aim  of  this 
strong  and  determined  princess  was  to  perpetuate  in  the  southern 
kingdom  the  supremacy  of  northern  Israel  and  the  policy  of  Omri's 
house,  reducing  Judah  to  a  kind  of  southern  dependency.  She 
reigned  from  843  to  837  b.  c. 

11.  Jehoshabeath:  a  royal  princess  and  also  the  wife  of  the 
high-priest. 

xxiii.     Overthrow  of  Athaliah' s  Tyranny. 

The  high-priest  kept  Joash,  the  sole  survivor  of  the  royal 
princes,  in  hiding  for  six  years,  carefully  watching  for  his  oppor- 
tunity of  overthrowing  the  despotism  of  the  queen-mother.  Athaliah 
had  been  the  evil  genius  of  her  son  Ahaziah,  and  her  regency  was 
of  such  a  nature  as  to  promote  revolutionary  tendencies.  Hence, 
on  the  given  signal,  the  coronation  of  Joash,  the  death  of  Athaliah, 
and  the  overthrow  of  the  worship  of  Baal  were  successfully 
accomplished.  The  whole  chapter  should  be  carefully  compared 
with  2  Kings  xi.  4-20  as  an  illustration  of  the  chronicler's  different 
reading  of  history  as  compared  with  that  of  the  author  of  Kings. 

1.  the  captains:  the  fact  that  the  chronicler  gives  the  names  of 
five  of  the  captains  implies  that  other  sources  of  information  than 
2  Kings  xi  were  accessible  to  him. 


II   CHRONICLES  23.  2-6.     Ch-  269 

son  of  Jeroham,  and  Ishmael  the  son  of  Jehohanan,  and 
Azariah  the  son  of  Obed,  and  Maaseiah  the  son  of  Adaiah, 
and  Elishaphat  the  son  of  Zichri,   into  covenant  with 
him.     And  they  went  about  in  Judah,  and  gathered  the  2 
Levites  out  of  all  the  cities  of  Judah,  and  the  heads  of 
fathers'  houses  of  Israel,  and   they  came  to  Jerusalem. 
And  all  the  congregation  made  a  covenant  with  the  king  3 
in  the  house  of  God.     And  he  .aid  unto  them.  Behold, 
the  king's  son  shall   reign,  as   the  Lord   hath   spoken 
concerning  the  sons  of  David.     This  is  the  thing  that  ye  4 
shall  do  :  a  third  part  of  you,  that  come  in  on  the  sabbath, 
of  the  priests  and  of  the  Levites,  shall  be  porters  of  the 
doors ;  and  a  third  part  shall  be  at  the  king's  house  ;  and  5 
a  third   part   at   the   gate   of  the   foundation :  and   all 
the  people  shall  be  in  the  courts  of  the  house  of  the 
Lord.     But  let  none  come  into  the  house  of  the  Lord,  6 
save  the  priests,  and  they  that  minister  of  the  Levites ; 


2.  gathered  the  Levites:  the  chronicler  characteristicall}''  omits 
all  mention  of  '  the  Carites '  (2  Kings  xi.  4)  and  lays  stress  on  the 
part  pla3'ed  by  the  Levites  in  the  revolution.  But,  as  Keil  observes, 
the  discrepancies  which  seem  thus  to  be  introduced  disappear  if  it 
be  assumed  that  the  authors  of  Kings  and  Chronicles  are  both 
making  selections  from  a  fuller  common  source.  Their  narratives 
are  mutually  complementary  rather  than  contradictory. 

4,  5.  It  is  impossible,  with  our  present  knowledge,  to  solve 
with  certainty  the  question  of  the  location  of  the  guards  and 
equally  difficult  to  harmonize  the  terminology  of  2  Kings  and  our 
narrative.  The  moment  chosen  for  action  was  the  time  of  the 
changing  of  the  guard.  The  guard  was  to  be  so  disposed  as  to 
secure  the  young  king  within  the  Temple  enclosure.  As  to  the 
difficulties  of  reconciling  the  narratives  of  Kings  and  Chronicles, 
the  best  solution  seems  to  be  that  of  Keil :  'Both  accounts  mention 
merely  the  main  points  of  the  proceedings  : — the  author  of  the 
Book  of  Kings  emphasizes  the  part  played  in  the  affair  by  the  royal 
body-guard  ;  the  author  of  the  Chronicles,  on  the  other  hand, 
emphasizes  that  played  by  the  Levites  :  so  that  both  accounts 
mutually  supplement  each  other,  and  only  when  taken  together 
give  a  full  account  of  the  circumstances.' 


270         II    CHRONICLES  23.  7-13.     Ch'^  H 

they  shall  come  in,  for  they  are  holy  :  but  all  the  people 

7  shall  keep  the  watch  of  the  Lord.  [H]  And  the  Levites 
shall  compass  the  king  round  about,  every  man  with  his 
weapons  in  his  hand;  and  whosoever  cometh  into  the 
house,  let  him  be  slain :  and  be  ye  with  the  king  when 

8  he  cometh  in,  and  when  he  goeth  out.  So  the  Levites 
and  all  Judah  did  according  to  all  that  Jehoiada  the 
priest  commanded :  and  they  took  every  man  his  men, 
those  that  were  to  come  in  on  the  sabbath,  with  those 
that  were  to  go  out  on  the  sabbath;  for  Jehoiada  the 

9  priest  dismissed  not  the  courses.  And  Jehoiada  the 
priest  delivered  to  the  captains  of  hundreds  the  spears, 
and  bucklers,  and  shields,  that  had  been  king  David's, 

10  which  were  in  the  house  of  God.  And  he  set  all  the 
people,  every  man  v/ith  his  weapon  in  his  hand,  from  the 
right  side  of  the  house  to  the  left  side  of  the  house,  along 
by  the  altar  and  the  house,  by  the  king  round  about. 

1 1  Then  they  brought  out  the  king's  son,  and  put  the  crown 
upon  him,  and  gave  him  the  testimony,  and  made  him 
king :  and  Jehoiada   and    his   sons  anointed  him ;  and 

12  they  said,  God  save  the  king.  And  when  Athaliah  heard 
the  noise  of  the  people  running  and  praising  the  king,  she 

13  came  to  the  people  into  the  house  of  the  Lord  :  and  she 
looked,  and,  behold,  the  king  stood  by  his  pillar  at  the 
entrance,  and  the  captains  and  the  trumpets  by  the 
king ;  and  all  the  people  of  the  land  rejoiced,  and  blew 
with  trumpets;  the  singers  2i\?,o  played  on  instruments  of 

6.  the  people  shall  keep  the  watch  of  the  LORD  :  i.  e.  perform 
the  appointed  acts  of  worship  in  the  court  reserved  for  them. 

11.  the  testimony  :  the  roll  of  the  Law  was  put  into  the  young 
king's  hand  as  part  of  the  regalia. 

God  save  the  king":  literally  '  let  the  king  live.' 

13.  by  his  pillar  at  the  entrance:  this  seems  to  indicate  the 
porch  of  the  Temple,  where  stood  the  pillars  Jachin  and  Boaz. 


II   CHRONICLES    23.14-20.     H  Ch^         271 

music,  and  led  the  singing  of  praise.  Then  Athaliah  rent 
her  clothes,  and  said,  Treason,  treason.  And  Jehoiada  14 
the  priest  brought  out  the  captains  of  hundreds  that  were 
set  over  the  host,  and  said  unto  them,  Have  her  forth 
between  the  ranks ;  and  whoso  followeth  her,  let  him  be 
slain  with  the  sword :  for  the  priest  said,  Slay  her  not  in 
the  house  of  the  Lord.  So  they  made  way  for  her ;  and  15 
she  went  to  the  entry  of  the  horse  gate  to  the  king's 
house  :  and  they  slew  her  there. 

And  Jehoiada  made  a  covenant  between  himself,  and  16 
all  the  people,  and  the  king,  that   they  should  be  the 
Lord's  people.     And  all  the  people  went  to  the  house  of  17 
Baal,  and  brake  it  down,  and  brake  his  altars  and  his 
images  in  pieces,  and  slew  Mattan  the  priest  of  Baal  before 
the  altars.     [Ch^]  And  Jehoiada  appointed  the  offices  of  18 
the  house  of  the  Lord  under  the  hand  of  the  priests  the 
Levites,  whom  David  had  distributed  in  the  house  of 
the  Lord,  to  offer  the  burnt  offerings  of  the  Lord,  as  it  is 
written  in  the  law  of  Moses,  with  rejoicing  and  with 
singing,  according  to  the  order  of  David.     And  he  set  19 
the  porters  at  the  gates  of  the  house  of  the  Lord,  that 
none  which  was  unclean  in  any  thing  should  enter  in. 
And  he  took  the  captains  of  hundreds,  and  the  nobles,  20 


15.  the  horse  gate :  the  queen-regent  met  her  death  at  that 
gate  of  the  palace  which  was  used  by  the  mounted  guard. 

16.  between  himself,  and  all  the  people :  i.  e.  as  the  priestly 
representative  of  Jehovah.  The  mention  of  the  political  covenant 
(2  Kings  xi.  17)  is  omitted  ;  it  is  only  the  religious  compact  vs^ith 
Jehovah  that  is  stressed  by  the  chronicler. 

17.  went  to  the  house  of  Baal:  after  the  slaughter  of  Athaliah 
the  natural  course  was  the  overthrov/  of  the  illicit  rites  she  had 
introduced  from  northern  Israel. 

18.  19.  The  reorganization  of  the  Temple  services  receives 
much  fuller  attention  than  in  2  Kings. 

20,  21.  A  military  and  civic  procession  escorts  the  young  king 


272     II   CHRONICLES  23.  2i^24.  5.  Ch^-  H  Ch 

and  the  governors  of  the  people,  and  all  the  people  of 
the  land,  and  brought  down  the  king  from  the  house  of 
the  Lord  :  and  they  came  through  the  upper  gate  unto 
the  king's  house,  and  set  the  king  upon  the  throne  of  the 

21  kingdom.  So  all  the  people  of  the  land  rejoiced,  and 
the  city  was  quiet:  and  they  slew  Athaliah  with  the  sword. 

24  [H]  Joash  was  seven  years  old  when  he  began  to 
reign  ;  and  he  reigned  forty  years  in  Jerusalem  :  and  his 

2  mother's  name  was  Zibiah  of  Beer-sheba.  And  Joash 
did  that  which  was  right  in  the  eyes  of  the  Lord  all  the 

3  days  of  Jehoiada  the  priest.  [Ch]  And  Jehoiada  took 
for  him  two  wives;  and  he  begat  sons  and  daughters. 

4  And  it  came  to  pass  after  this,  that  Joash  was  minded 

5  to  restore  the  house  of  the  Lord.  And  he  gathered 
together  the  priests  and  the  Levites,  and  said  to  them, 
Go  out  unto  the  cities  of  Judah,  and  gather  of  all  Israel 
money  to  repair  the  house  of  your  God  from  year  to 
year,  and  see  that  ye  hasten  the  matter.     Howbeit  the 

to  the  palace  to  complete  the  act  of  enthronement.  National 
rejoicing  follows  the  complete  success  of  the  revolution. 

(8)  xxiv.  Reign  of  Joash. 
The  reign  of  Joash  covered  a  period  of  over  forty  years,  837  to 
798  B.  c. ;  yet  we  have  here  merely  the  narrative  of  the  repair  of 
the  Temple  and  the  campaign  against  Syria.  The  facts  narrated 
are  paralleled  by  2  Kings  xi.  21 — xii.  14  and  xii.  17-21  with 
additions  of  detail  and  also  with  considerable  omissions. 

xxiv.   1-3.  Inirodiidory. 

2.  The  chronicler  is  stating  the  fact  that  Joash  persevered  in  a 
path  of  loyalty  to  Jehovah  only  so  long  as  Jehoiada  was  high-priest. 
The  king  had  learned  to  assert  his  independence,  however,  by  his 
thirtieth  year  :  cf.  verse  6  and  2  Kings  xii.  6. 

xxiv.  4-14.  Repair  of  ihe  Temple.  The  fabric  of  the  Temple  had 
somehow  been  allowed  to  fall  into  disrepair.  Consequently  the 
king  instituted  a  new  system  for  the  collection  and  outlay  of  the 
dues  and  the  voluntary  offerings.  This  incident  should  be  com- 
pared with  Josiah's  action  narrated  in  2  Kings  xxii.  3  fif. 


II    CHRONICLES  24.  6-ir.     Ch  Ch^  273 

Levites  hastened  it  not.     [Ch'^]  And  the  king  called  for  6 
Jehoiada  the  chief,  and  said  unto  him,  Why  hast  thou 
not  required  of  the  Levites  to  bring  in  out  of  Judah  and 
out  of  Jerusalem  the  tax  of  Moses  the  servant  of  the 
Lord,  and  of  the  congregation  of  Israel,  for  the  tent  of 
the  testimony?     For  the  sons  of  Athaliah,  that  wicked  7 
woman,  had  broken  up  the  house  of  God ;  and  also  all 
the  dedicated  things  of  the  house  of  the  Lord  did  they 
bestow  upon  the  Baalim.     So  the  king  commanded,  and  8 
they  made  a  chest,  and  set  it  without  at  the  gate  of  the 
house  of  the  Lord.     And  they  made  a  proclamation  9 
through  Judah  and  Jerusalem,  to  bring  in  for  the  Lord 
the  tax  that  Moses  the  servant  of  God  laid  upon  Israel  in 
the  wilderness.     And  all  the  princes  and  all  the  people  10 
rejoiced,  and  brought  in,  and  cast  into  the  chest,  until 
they  had  made  an  end.     And  it  was  so,  that  at  what  time  •  i 
the  chest  was  brought  unto  the  king's  office  by  the  hand 

5.  the  Levites  hastened  it  not:  i.e.  the  royal  commands  were 
not  carried  out. 

6.  the  tax  of  Moses:  the  chronicler,  desirous  of  guarding 
against  the  misconception  that  the  priestly  dues  were  being 
wrongly  applied,  omits  the  ambiguous  phrase  of  2  Kings,  and 
insists  that  there  had  been  a  neglect  to  raise  the  poll-tax  which 
Moses  had  originally  instituted  for  the  repair  of  the  Tabernacle 
(cf.  Exod.  XXX.  11-16). 

*7.  the  sons  of  Athaliah:  all  the  sons  of  Jehoram  had  been 
massacred  when  the  king  was  some  thirty-seven  years  of  age  ; 
hence  they  must  have  been  quite  youths  when  they  raided  the 
Temple  in  favour  of  the  Baals. 

8.  set  it  without  at  the  gfate:  in  2  Kings  xii.  9  it  is  said  to  have 
been  placed  beside  the  altar.  The  probability  is  that  the  chronicler 
has  not  only  felt  the  incongruity  of  this,  but  has  also  preserved  the 
correct  reading.  In  fact,  Klostermann  would  emend  2  Kings  to 
read  "  near  the  southern  doorpost.' 

9.  made  a  proclamation :  the  income  for  the  renovation  of  the 
Temple  was  henceforth  to  consist  solely  of  voluntary  gifts. 

11.  unto  the  king"s  office:  the  meaning  is  brought  out  in  the 
margin,  viz.  a  Levitic  commission  had  the  oversight  of  all  the 
moneys. 


274         H   CHRONICLES  24.  12-16.     Ch^  Ch 

of  the  Levites,  and  when  they  saw  that  there  was  much 
money,  the  king's  scribe  and  the  chief  priest's  officer 
came  and  emptied  the  chest,  and  took  it,  and  carried  it 
to  its  place  again.     Thus   fhey  did   day  by  day,   and 

12  gathered  money  in  abundance.  And  the  king  and 
Jehoiada  gave  it  to  such  as  did  the  work  of  the  service 
of  the  house  of  the  Lord  ;  and  they  hired  masons  and 
carpenters  to  restore  the  house  of  the  Lord,  and  also 
such  as  wrought  iron  and  brass  to  repair  the  house  of  the 

13  Lord.  So  the  workmen  wrought,  and  the  work  was 
perfected  by  them,  and  they  set  up  the  house  of  God  in 

14  its  state,  and  strengthened  it.  And  when  they  had  made 
an  end,  they  brought  the  rest  of  the  money  before  the 
king  and  Jehoiada,  whereof  were  made  vessels  for  the 
house  of  the  Lord,  even  vessels  to  minister,  and  to  offer 
withal,  and  spoons,  and  vessels  of  gold  and  silver.  And 
they  offered  burnt  offerings  in  the  house  of  the  Lord 

15  continually  all  the  days  of  Jehoiada.  [Ch]  But  Jehoiada 
waxed  old  and  was  full  of  days,  and  he  died ;  an  hundred 

16  and  thirty  years  old  was  he  when  he  died.  And  they 
buried  him  in  the  city  of  David  among  the  kings,  because 
he  had  done  good  in  Israel,  and  toward  God  and  his 


12.  they  hired  masons  and  carpenters:  this  throws  light 
upon  the  extent  to  which  the  Temple  fabric  had  decayed. 

14.  all  the  days  of  Jehoiada :  the  phrase  is  evidence  that  the 
high-priest's  influence  alone  determined  the  ecclesiastical  policy 
of  the  king  and  kept  him  loyal  to  Jehovah. 

xxiv.  15-22.  Religious  Decline.  This  section  is  peculiar  to 
Chronicles.  Its  substance  is  such  as  to  explain  the  national 
decay,  Jehoiada  dies,  the  people  apostatize,  the  disapproval  of 
Jehovah  is  made  known. 

16.  huried  him  .  .  .  among'  the  king's :  as  became  a  priest 
allied  by  marriage  to  royalty,  the  prime  mover  in  a  national  revolu- 
tion, and,  thereafter,  the  lifelong  director  of  the  royal  polity. 
While  he  is  so  prominent  in  this  narrative,  it  is  specially  note- 


II   CHRONICLES  24.  17-22.     Ch  275 

house.      Now  after  the  death   of  Jehoiada   came  the  17 
princes   of  Judah,  and   made   obeisance   to   the   king. 
Then  the  king  hearkened  unto  them.     And  they  forsook  18 
the  house  of  the  Lord,  the  God  of  their  fathers,  and 
served  the  Asherim  and  the  idols  :  and  wrath  came  upon 
Judah  and  Jerusalem  for  this  their  guiltiness.     Yet  he  19 
sent  prophets  to  them,  to  bring  them  again  unto  the 
Lord  ;  and  they  testified  against  them :  but  they  would 
not  give  ear.     And  the  spirit  of  God  came  upon  Zechariah  20 
the  son  of  Jehoiada  the  priest ;  and  he  stood  above  the 
people,   and   said   unto   them,    Thus   saith   God,    Why 
transgress  ye  the  commandments  of  the  Lord,  that  ye 
cannot  prosper  ?  because  ye  have  forsaken  the  Lord,  he 
hath  also  forsaken  you.     And  they  conspired  against  him,  21 
and  stoned  him  with  stones  at  the  commandment  of  the 
king  in  the  court  of  the  house  of  the  Lord.     Thus  Joash  22 
the  king  remembered  not  the  kindness  which  Jehoiada 
his  father  had  done  to  him,  but  slew  his  son.     And  when 
he  died,  he  said,  The  Lord  look  upon  it,  and  require  it. 


worthy  that  his  name  does  not  occur  in  the  list  of  high-priests 
given  in  i  Chron.  vi.  1-15. 

17.  the  king  hearkened:  like  a  later  Rehoboam  he  allcnved 
himself  to  be  swayed  by  evil  councillors.  What  the  princes 
sought  and  obtained  appears  from  verse  18. 

19.  Yet  he  sent  prophets:  Jehovah's  anger  with  apostasy  did 
not  prevent  His  grace.  As  always,  He  was  'a  just  God  and 
a  Saviour.' 

20.  the  spirit  of  God  came  upon :  literally,  '  clothed  himself 
with.' 

Zechariah:  the  royal  favour  should  have  been  extended 
towards  the  son  of  the  man  to  whom  the  king  owed  his  throne. 

above  the  people  :  the  inner  court,  whence  he  addressed 
the  crowds  (cf.  verse  21),  was  raised  above  the  level  of  the  outer 
court. 

22.  The  LORD  . . .  require  it:  Zechariah-ben-Jehoiada  became 
one  of  the  martyr-prophets  ;  but  his  last  prayer  was  for  vengeance. 
This  is  the  man  named  in  Matt,  xxiii.  35  and  Luke  xi.  51. 

T    2 


276  II   CHRONICLES  24.  23-27.     Ch  Ch^ 

23  And  it  came  to  pass  at  the  end  of  the  year,  that  the  army 
of  the  Syrians  came  up  against  him  :  and  they  came  to 
Judah  and  Jerusalem,  and  destroyed  all  the  princes  of 
the  people  from  among  the  people,  and  sent  all  the  spoil 

24  of  them  unto  the  king  of  Damascus.  For  the  army  of 
the  Syrians  came  with  a  small  company  of  men  ;  and  the 
Lord  delivered  a  very  great  host  into  their  hand,  because 
they  had  forsaken  the  Lord,  the  God  of  their  fathers.     So 

25  they  executed  judgement  upon  Joash.  [Ch"]  And  when 
they  were  departed  from  him,  (for  they  left  him  in  great 
diseases,)  his  own  servants  conspired  against  him  for  the 
blood  of  the  sons  of  Jehoiada  the  priest,  and  slew  him 
on  his  bed,  and  he  died :  and  they  buried  him  in  the 
city  of  David,  but  they  buried  him  not  in  the  sepulchres 

26  of  the  kings.  And  these  are  they  that  conspired  against 
him ;  Zabad  the  son  of  Shimeath  the  Ammonitess,  and 

27  Jehozabad  the  son  of  Shimrith  the  Moabitess.  Now 
concerning  his  sons,  and  the  greatness  of  the  burdens 
laid  upon  him,  and  the  rebuilding  of  the  house  of  God, 
behold,  they  are  written  in  the  commentary  of  the  book 
of  the  kings.  And  Amaziah  his  son  reigned  in  his 
stead. 


xxiv.  23-26,  The  Syrian  Campaign.  The  result  of  apostasy 
was  seen  in  the  defeat  of  Joash  by  the  Syrian  invader,  Hazael, 
Cf.  2  Kings  xii.  17  ff.,  where  Joash  buys  off  the  invader  with  the 
Temple  treasures,  whereas  here  the  capital  is  represented  as 
being  plundered. 

23,  24.  the  army  of  the  Syrians  :  the  invader  was  Hazael, 
who  had  previously  reduced  Gath  (cf.  2  Kings).  The  chronicler 
points  out  that  the  Syrian  army  was  small  in  numbers,  but  success- 
ful as  a  Heaven-sent  scourge. 

25.  they  left  him  in  great  diseases :  i.  e.  the  king  was  badly 
wounded. 

sons  of  Jehoiada:  read  *  son  '  with  LXX. 

27.  the  commentary  of  the  book  of  the  king's :  i.  e.  the 
midrash  ;  cf.  Introd.  §  iv. 


II   CHRONICLES  25.  1-5.    H  Ch  277 

[H]  Amaziah  was  twenty  and  five  years  old  when  he  25 
began  to  reign ;  and  he  reigned  twenty  and  nine  years  in 
Jerusalem  :  and  his  mother's  name  was  Jehoaddan  of 
Jerusalem.     And  he  did  that  which  was  right  in  the  eyes  2 
of  the  Lord,  but  not  with  a  perfect  heart.     Now  it  came  3 
to  pass,  when  the  kingdom  was  established  unto  him, 
that  he  slew  his  servants  which  had  killed  the  king  his 
father.     But  he  put  not  their  children  to  death,  but  did  4 
according  to  that  which  is  written  in  the  law  in  the  book 
of  Moses,  as  the  Lord  commanded,  saying,  The  fathers 
shall  not  die  for  the  children,  neither  shall  the  children 
die  for  the  fathers ;  but  every  man  shall  die  for  his  own 
sin.     [Ch]  Moreover  Amaziah  gathered  Judah  together,  5 
and  ordered  them  according  to  their  fathers'  houses,  under 
captains  of  thousands  and  captains  of  hundreds,  even  all 
Judah  and   Benjamin  :  and   he   numbered   them   from 

(9)  XXV.    Reign  of  Amaziah. 

The  reign  of  Amaziah  (798-790  b.  c.)  is  one  more  illustration  of 
a  fair  beginning,  rewarded  with  power  and  success,  giving  place 
to  reh'gious  declension  and  its  inevitable  sequel  of  disaster.  The 
facts  narrated  are  found  also  in  2  Kings  xiv,  but  the  narrative  of 
the  Edomite  campaign  is  found  solely  in  Chronicles. 

XXV.  1-4,     Introdticfory. 

1.  Amaziah.  For  a  full  discussion  of  the  chronology  of  the 
Hebrew  kings  we  must  refer  the  student  to  the  Century  Bible  on 
'  Kings  '  (by  Skinner),  pp.  38-47.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  it  is  only 
possible  to  harmonize  the  statements  in  Kings  by  radical  emenda- 
tion. Among  the  changes  necessitated  is  the  reduction  of  the 
length  of  Amaziah's  reign  by  twenty  years. 

2.  not  with,  a  perfect  heart :  the  author  of  Kings  saj'S  that  he 
allowed  the  worship  at  the  high-places  to  continue. 

4.  in  the  law  in  the  hook  of  Moses :  cf.  Deut.  xxiv.  10. 

XXV.  5-13.  Edomite  Campaign.  Edom  had  revolted  under 
Jehoram.  and  had  maintained  its  independence  in  spite  of  that 
monarch's  efforts  to  reduce  it  (cf.  2  Kings  viii.  20-22).  How  far 
Amaziah  succeeded  in  achieving  the  same  object  is  not  stated. 


278  II   CHRONICLES  25.  6-13.     Ch 

twenty  years  old  and  upward,  and   found  them  three 
hundred  thousand  chosen  men,  able  to  go  forth  to  war, 

6  that  could  handle  spear  and  shield.  He  hired  also  an 
hundred  thousand  mighty  men  of  valour  out  of  Israel  for 

7  an  hundred  talents  of  silver.  But  there  came  a  man  of 
God  to  him,  saying,  O  king,  let  not  the  army  of  Israel  go 
with  thee ;  for  the  Lord  is  not  with  Israel,  to  wit,  with  all 

8  the  children  of  Ephraim.  But  if  thou  wilt  go,  do  valiantly^ 
be  strong  for  the  battle  :  God  shall  cast  thee  down  before 
the  enemy;  for  God  hath  power  to  help,  and  to  cast 

9  down.  And  Amaziah  said  to  the  man  of  God,  But  what 
shall  we  do  for  the  hundred  talents  which  I  have  given  to 
the  army  of  Israel  ?    And  the  man  of  God  answered.  The 

10  Lord  is  able  to  give  thee  much  more  than  this.  Then 
Amaziah  separated  them,  to  wit,  the  army  that  was  come 
to  him  out  of  Ephraim,  to  go  home  again :   wherefore 

11  their  anger  was  greatly  kindled  against  Judah,  and  they 
returned  home  in  fierce  anger.  And  Amaziah  took 
courage,  and  led  forth  his  people,  and  went  to  the  Valley 
of  Salt,  and  smote  of  the  children  of  Seir  ten  thousand. 

12  And  other  ten  thousand  did  the  children  of  Judah  carry 
away  alive,  and  brought  them  unto  the  top  of  the  rock, 
and  cast  them  down  from  the  top  of  the  rock,  that  they 

13  all  were  broken  in  pieces.     But  the  men  of  the  army 


5.  three  hundred  thousand  chosen  men  :  Joash  had  1,160,000 

warriors  in  his  day  ;    the  shrinkage  is  remarkable  if  the  former 
figures  be  correct. 

6.  hired  .  .  .  men  of  valour  out  of  Israel:  this  use  of 
mercenaries,  and  the  making  of  alliances  with  unhallowed  powers, 
were  invariably  condemned  by  the  prophets  as  signs  of  a  want  of 
faith  in  Jehovah. 

8.  God  shall  cast  thee  down :  i.  e.  if  he  persisted  in  relying 
upon  the  northern  mercenaries. 

11.  the  Valley  of  Salt:  south  of  the  Dead  Sea;  cf.  note  on 
I  Chron.  xviii.  12. 


II   CHRONICLES  25.14-17.     Ch  H         279 

which  Amaziah  sent  back,  that  they  should  not  go  with 
him  to  battle,  fell  upon  the  cities  of  Judah,  from  Samaria 
even  unto  Beth-horon,  and  smote  of  them  three  thousand, 
and  took  much  spoil. 

Now  it  came  to  pass,  after  that  Amaziah  was  come  14 
from  the  slaughter  of  the  Edomites,  that  he  brought  the 
gods  of  the  children  of  Seir,  and  set  them  up  to  be  his 
gods,  and  bowed  down  himself  before  them,  and  burned 
incense  unto  them.     Wherefore  the  anger  of  the  Lord  15 
was  kindled  against  Amaziah,  and  he  sent  unto  him  a 
prophet,  which  said  unto  him,  Why  hast  thou  sought  after 
the  gods  of  the  people,  which  have  not  delivered  their 
own  people  out  of  thine  hand?     And  it  came  to  pass,  as  16 
he  talked  with  him,  that  the  king  said  unto  him,  Have  we 
made  thee  of  the  king's  counsel  ?  forbear ;  why  shouldest 
thou  be  smitten  ?    Then  the  prophet  forbare,  and  said,  I 
know  that  God  hath  determined  to  destroy  thee,  because 
thou  hast  done  this,  and  hast  not  hearkened  unto  my 
counsel. 

[H]  Then  Amaziah  king  of  Judah  took  advice,  and  17 

13.  from  Samaria  even  unto  Beth-horon:  probably  the 
chronicler  employs  the  words  according  to  the  usage  of  his  own 
day,  so  that  Samaria  refers  to  the  northern  kingdom,  not  to  the 
city.  The  irate  Israelite  mercenaries,  angered  by  the  loss  of  the 
chance  of  plundering  Edom,  took  advantage  of  Amaziah's  absence 
and  plundered  Judah  instead. 

XXV.  14-16,  Apostasy.  The  victory  over  Edom  proved  a  religious 
disaster  to  Amaziah  in  that  he  became  a  devotee  of  the  gods  of 
Edom. 

15.  The  folly  as  well  as  the  sin  of  this  apostasy  is  what  the 
prophet  insists  upon.  Jehovah  had  given  Amaziah  the  victory  ; 
yet  the  king  transferred  his  allegiance  to  the  gods  who  had 
proved  useless  to  Edom.    The  chronicler  is  writing  midrash  here. 

XXV.  17-24.  War  with  Joash  of  Israel.  Amaziah  is  elated  with 
his  victory  over  Edom,  and  probably  stung  by  the  action  of  the 
dismissed  mercenaries.  He,  consequently,  challenges  Joash  to 
battle,  but  receives  a  contemptuous  parabolic  response.    Eventually, 


28o  II  CHRONICLES  25.  18-24.     H 

sent  to  Joash,  the  son  of  Jehoahaz  the  son  of  Jehu,  king 
of  Israel,  saying.  Come,  let  us  look  one  another  in  the 

18  face.  And  Joash  king  of  Israel  sent  to  Amaziah  king  of 
Judah,  saying,  The  thistle  that  was  in  Lebanon  sent  to 
the  cedar  that  was  in  Lebanon,  saying,  Give  thy  daughter 
to  my  son  to  wife  :  and  there  passed  by  a  wild  beast  that 

19  was  in  Lebanon,  and  trode  down  the  thistle.  Thou 
sayest,  Lo,  thou  hast  smitten  Edom;  and  thine  heart 
lifteth  thee  up  to  boast :  abide  now  at  home ;  why 
shouldest  thou  meddle  to  thy  hurt,  that  thou  shouldest 

20  fall,  even  thou,  and  Judah  with  thee  ?  But  Amaziah 
would  not  hear ;  for  it  was  of  God,  that  he  might  deliver 
them  into  the  hand  of  their  enemies,  because  they  had 

21  sought  after  the  gods  of  Edom.  So  Joash  king  of  Israel 
went  up  ;  and  he  and  Amaziah  king  of  Judah  looked  one 
another  in  the  face  at  Beth-shemesh,  which  belongeth  to 

22  Judah.     And  Judah  was  put  to  the  worse  before  Israel ; 

23  and  they  fled  every  man  to  his  tent.  And  Joash  king  of 
Israel  took  Amaziah  king  of  Judah,  the  son  of  Joash  the 
son  of  Jehoahaz,  at  Beth-shemesh,  and  brought  him  to 
Jerusalem,  and  brake  down  the  wall  of  Jerusalem  from 
the  gate  of  Ephraim  unto  the  corner  gate,  four  hundred 

24  cubits.     And  he  took  all  the  gold  and  silver,  and  all  the 


Amaziah  meets  with  a  severe  defeat  at  Beth-shemesh,  is  taken 
prisoner,  and  suffers  the  dismantling  of  the  fortifications  of  his 
capital.  The  narrative  agrees  almost  verbally  with  2  Kings 
xiv.  8-14. 

17.  look  one  another  in  the  face :  an  ambiguous  challenge  to 
battle. 

18.  The  parable  of  Joash  is  a  rebuke  of  Amaziah's  insolence. 

19.  meddle  to  thy  hurt:  margin,  'provoke  calamity.' 

20.  for  it  was  of  God  :  this  is  the  chronicler's  original  comment 
on  the  facts  which  he  borrows  from  2  Kings. 

23.  Jehoahaz:  i.  e.  Ahaziah  ;  cf.  note  on  xxi.  17. 
the  gate  of  Ephraim  :  probably  in  the  north  wall. 


II   CHRONICLES  25.  25-^26.  3.     H         281 

vessels  that  were  found  in  the  house  of  God  with  Obed- 
edom,  and  the  treasures  of  the  king's  house,  the  hostages 
also,  and  returned  to  Samaria. 

And  Amaziah  the  son  of  Joash  king  of  Judah  lived  25 
after  the  death  of  Joash  son  of  Jehoahaz  king  of  Israel 
fifteen  years.     Now  the  rest  of  the  acts  of  Amaziah,  first  26 
and  last,  behold,  are  they  not  written  in  the  book  of  the 
kings  of  Judah  and  Israel?     Now  from  the  time  that  27 
Amaziah  did  turn  away  from  following  the  Lord  they 
made  a  conspiracy  against  him  in  Jerusalem  ;  and  he  fled 
to  Lachish  :  but  they  sent  after  him  to  Lachish,  and  slew 
him  there.     And  they  brought  him  upon  horses,  and  28 
buried  him  with  his  fathers  in  the  city  of  Judah. 

And  all  the  people  of  Judah  took  Uzziah,  who  was  26 
sixteen  years  old,  and  made  him  king  in  the  room  of  his 
father  Amaziah.       He   built   Eloth,  and  restored  it  to  2 
Judah,  after  that  the  king  slept  with  his  fathers.     Sixteen  3 

24.  Obed-edom :  the  guardian  of  the  sacred  vessels. 

XXV.  25-28.  Conclusion  of  the  Reign.  Amaziah  retained  his 
throne,  in  spite  of  his  defeat  by  Joash,  until  the  results  of  his  evil 
rule  led  to  a  conspiracy  which  resulted  in  his  assassination. 

25.  fifteen  years :  cf.  note  on  verse  i. 

26.  in  the  "book  of  the  king's  :  cf.  Introd.  §  iv. 

27.  Lachish:  the  modern  Tell-el-Hasi  in  the  Shephelah. 

(10)  xxvi.     Reign  of  Uzziah. 

Of  the  material  used  in  the  account  of  Uzziah's  reign,  verses 
1-4  and  21-23  ^re  found  in  2  Kings  xiv.  21  ff.  and  xv.  2-7  ;  but 
verses  5-20  are  peculiar  to  the  chronicler.  The  reign  w^as  a  long 
one,  and  the  new  matter  of  our  chapter  shows  that  it  was  marked 
by  a  wise  policy  of  development  at  home  and  by  successful 
military  undertakings.  During  part  of  Uzziah's  reign  the  prophet 
Isaiah  performed  his  ministry  in  Jerusalem  ;  and  he  bears  testimony 
to  the  monarch's  greatness  (cf.  Isa.  ii-iv). 

xxvi.  1-5.     Introdtidory. 

1.  Uzziah:  called  Azariah  in  2  Kings. 

2.  he  built  Eloth :  evidently  Uzziah  rebuilt  the  sea-port  which 
his  father  had  captured  but  had  been  unable  to  fortify. 


282  II  CHRONICLES  26.  4-10.    H  Ch  H^  Ch  H^  Ch  H« 

years  old  was  Uzziah  when  he  began  to  reign ;  and 
he  reigned  fifty  and  two  years  in  Jerusalem :   and  his 

4  mother's  name  was  Jechiliah  of  Jerusalem.  And  he  did 
that  which  was  right  in  the  eyes  o\  the  Lord,  according 

5  to  all  that  his  father  Amaziah  had  done.  [Ch]  And  he 
set  himself  to  seek  God  in  the  days  of  Zechariah,  who  had 
understanding  in  the  vision  of  God :  and  as  long  as  he 

6  sought  the  Lord,  God  made  him  to  prosper.  [H^]  And 
he  went  forth  and  warred  against  the  Philistines,  and 
brake  down  the  wall  of  Gath,  and  the  wall  of  Jabneh,  and 
the  wall  of  Ashdod ;  and  he  built  cities  in  t/ie  country 

7  of  Ashdod,  and  among  the  Philistines.  [Ch]  And  God 
helped  him  against  the  Philistines,  and  against  the  Ara- 

8  bians  that  dwelt  in  Gur-baal,  and  the  Meunim.  [H^]  And 
the  Ammonites  gave  gifts  to  Uzziah  :  [Ch]  and  his  name 
spread  abroad  even  to  the  entering  in  of  Egypt;  for 

9  he  waxed  exceeding  strong.  [H'-^]  Moreover  Uzziah 
built  towers  in  Jerusalem  at  the  corner  gate,  and  at  the 
valley  gate,  and  at  the  turning  of  the  wall^  and  fortified 

10  them.     And  he  built  towers  in  the  wilderness,  and  hewed 

3.  The  reign  should  be  dated  790-749  b.  c. 

5.  Zechariah,  who  had  understanding-  in  the  vision  of  God : 

read  with  R.  V.  margin,  *  who  gave  instruction  in  the  seeing 
of  God'  ;  this  is  borne  out  by  LXX,  Syr,,  Arab.,  Targum,  &c. 
Zechariah,  otherwise  unknown,  must  have  been  a  prophet  of 
importance  ;  he  held  a  position  of  influence  analogous  to  that  of 
Jehoiada  under  Joash. 

xxvi.  6-10.  Military  and  Civil  Activities.  The  result  of  Uzziah's 
fidelity  to  Jehovah  is  traced  by  the  chronicler  in  successful 
campaigns,  growing  power,  and  national  prosperity. 

6.  The  Philistines  were  brought  under  the  suzerainty  of  Judah 
and  their  land  colonized.  Jabneh  is  the  modern  Jebneh,  south 
of  Joppa.     The  material  is  clearly  historic  and  trustworthy. 

7.  Gur-baal :  otherwise  unknown. 
Meunim:  cf.  note  on  xx.  i. 

9.  Jerusalem  was  fortified  by  towers  at  the  north-west  corner 
of  the  wall  and  at  the  spot  where  the  Jaffa  gate  now  stands. 


II   CHRONICLES  26.  11-16.     H^  Ch  283 

out  many  cisterns,  for  he  had  much  cattle  ;  in  the  lowland 
also,  and  in  the  plain :  and  he  had  husbandmen  and 
vinedressers  in  the  mountains  and  in  the  fruitful  fields ; 
for  he  loved  husbandry.     [Ch]  Moreover  Uzziah  had  an  n 
army  of  fighting  men,  that  went  out  to  war  by  bands, 
according  to  the  number  of  their  reckoning  made  by  Jeiel 
the  scribe  and  Maaseiah  the  officer,  under  the  hand  of 
Hananiah,  one  of  the  king's  captains.     The  whole  number  1 2 
of  the  heads  of  fathers'  houses^  even  the  mighty  men 
of  valour,  was  two  thousand  and  six  hundred.     And  under  13 
their  hand  was  a  trained  army,  three  hundred  thousand 
and  seven  thousand  and  five  hundred,  that  made  war  with 
mighty  power,  to  help  the  king  against  the  enemy.     And  14 
Uzziah  prepared  for  them,  even  for  all  the  host,  shields, 
and  spears,  and  helmets,  and  coats  of  mail,  and  bows,  and 
stones  for  slinging.     And  he  made  in  Jerusalem  engines,  15 
invented  by  cunning  men,  to  be  on  the  towers  and  upon 
the  battlements,  to  shoot  arrows  and  great  stones  withal. 
And  his  name  spread  far  abroad ;  for  he  was  marvellously 
helped,  till  he  was  strong. 

But  when  he  was  strong,  his  heart  was  lifted  up  so  that  16 
he  did  corruptly,  and  he  trespassed  against  the  Lord  his 

10.  in  the  lowland:  i.  e.  the  Shephelah. 
in  the  plain :  i.  e.  the  district  east  of  the  Dead  Sea. 
he  loved  hnshandry :  this  explains  the  national  development. 

xxvi.  11-15.  National  progress  was  equally  marked  in  military 
matters,  and,  for  the  first  time  in  Hebrew  history,  we  find  the 
king  possessing  elaborate,  if  primitive,  artillery. 

15.  to  shoot  arrows  and  gfreat  stones:  artillery  resembling 
the  Roman  catapulta  and  ballista. 

xxvi.  16-23.  Period  of  Decay.  Uzziah's  reign  closes  with  a  con- 
flict with  the  priests,  in  which  the  ecclesiastical  power  prevails. 
Royal  apostasy  is,  as  usual,  followed  by  declining  power. 

16.  he  trespassed:  Uzziah's  sin  was  a  defiance  of  the  law  and 
a  usurpation  of  the  rights  of  the  priesthood. 


284  II    CHRONICLES  26.  17-23.     Ch  H 

God ;    for   he  went   into   the   temple  of  the   Lord  to 

17  burn  incense  upon  the  altar  of  incense.  And  Azariah  the 
priest  went  in  after  him,  and  with  him  fourscore  priests  of 

18  the  Lord,  that  were  valiant  men :  and  they  withstood 
Uzziah  the  king,  and  said  unto  him,  It  pertaineth  not 
unto  thee,  Uzziah,  to  burn  incense  unto  the  Lord,  but  to 
the  priests  the  sons  of  Aaron,  that  are  consecrated  to 
burn  incense:  go  out  of  the  sanctuary;  for  thou  hast 
trespassed  ;  neither  shall  it  be  for  thine  honour  from  the 

19  Lord  God.  Then  Uzziah  was  wroth ;  and  he  had  a 
censer  in  his  hand  to  burn  incense ;  and  while  he  was 
wroth  with  the  priests,  the  leprosy  brake  forth  in  his 
forehead  before  the  priests  in  the  house  of  the  Lord, 

20  beside  the  altar  of  incense.  And  Azariah  the  chief  priest, 
and  all  the  priests,  looked  upon  him,  and,  behold,  he  was 
leprous  in  his  forehead,  and  they  thrust  him  out  quickly 
from  thence ;  yea,  himself  hasted  also  to  go  out,  because 

21  the  Lord  had  smitten  him.  [H]  And  Uzziah  the  king 
was  a  leper  unto  the  day  of  his  death,  and  dwelt  in  a 
several  house,  being  a  leper ;  for  he  was  cut  off  from  the 
house  of  the   Lord  :   and   Jotham   his   son   was   over 

22  the  king's  house,  judging  the  people  of  the  land.  Now 
the  rest  of  the  acts  of  Uzziah,  first  and  last,  did  Isaiah  the 

2.3  prophet,  the  son  of  Amoz,  write.  So  Uzziah  slept  with 
his  fathers ;  and  they  buried  him  with  his  fathers  in  the 
field  of  burial  which   belonged  to  the  kings ;    for  they 


1*7.  Azariah:  the  high^priest  had  the  courage  to  beard  the 
king.  Probably  this  Azariah  is  the  same  as  the  high-priest  named 
in  I  Chron.  vi.  36. 

21.  dwelt  in  a  several  house:  he  was  isolated  and  possibly 
also  deposed  from  the  throne.  It  seems  probable  that  Jotham 
exercised  a  regency  during  the  last  eleven  3'cnrs  of  his  father's 
life  (cf.  Skinner  on  '  Kings/  Cfutury  Bible,  §  8). 

22.  Isaiah  the  prophet :  cf.  Isa.  ii-iv. 


II    CHRONICLES  27.  i-r.     H  H^  285 

said,   He  is  a  leper:    and  Jotham  his  son   reigned  in 
his  stead. 

Jotham  was  twenty  and  five  years  old  when  he  began  27 
to  reign ;  and  he  reigned   sixteen  years  in  Jerusalem : 
and  his  mother's  name  was  Jerushah  the  daughter  of 
Zadok.     And  he  did  that  which  was  right  in  the  eyes  of  z 
the  Lord,  according  to  all  that  his  father  Uzziah  had 
done :  howbeit  he  entered  not  into  the  temple  of  the 
Lord.     And  the  people  did  yet  corruptly.     He  built  the  3 
upper  gate  of  the  house  of  the  Lord,  and  on  the  wall 
of  Ophel  he  built  much.     [H^]  Moreover  he  built  cities  4 
in  the  hill  country  of  Judah^  and  in  the  forests  he  built 
castles  and  towers.     He  fought  also  with  the  king  of  the  5 
children  of  Ammon^  and  prevailed  against  them.     And 
the  children  of  Amnion  gave  him   the  same  year  an 


(11)  xxvii.  Reign  of  Jotham. 
Another  pious  king  occupied  the  Jewish  throne  in  the  person 
of  Jotham.  He  is  represented  as  zealous  for  the  Temple  and  for 
the  strength  of  his  cities  ;  he  was  loyal  to  Jehovah  and  successful 
in  war,  continuing  the  policy  of  his  father.  The  chronicler  has 
found  his  material  partly  in  2  Kings  xv.  33-35  and  38  and  partly 
in  records  now  non-extant. 

xxvii.  1-4.     Introductory. 

1.  Jotham:  we  may  date  his  reign  at  739-736  b.  c,  remember- 
ing, however,  that  he  had  already  exercised  the  regency  during 
eleven  years  of  his  father's  lifetime.  During  this  reign  Isaiah  and 
Micah  continued  their  prophetic  careers. 

2.  the  people  did  yet  corruptly :  the  phrase  seems  to  indicate 
the  prevalence  of  impiety  and  impurity. 

3.  the  upper  gate :  so  httle  is  known  of  the  gates  of  Solomon's 
Temple  that  it  is  impossible  with  confidence  to  locate  this  work  of 
Jotham.  The  probability  is  that  it  was  identical  with  the  'upper 
gate  of  Benjamin '  mentioned  in  Jer.  xx.  2,  and  was  situated  in 
the  north  wall  of  the  inner  court. 

on  the  wall  of  Ophel:  the  chronicler  alone  informs  us  of 
Jotham's  work  on  this  wall.  Ophel  is  the  name  of  the  southern 
spur  of  Mount  Moriah  (cf.  Neh.  iii.  26,  27). 

5,  6.    Jotham'' s  Wars.    Jotham  subdued  Ammon,  which  seems 


286     II   CHRONICLES  27.  6—28.  i.     M^  Ch  H 

hundred  talents  of  silver,  and  ten  thousand  measures 
of  wheat,  and  ten  thousand  of  barley.  So  much  did  the 
children  of  Amnion  render  unto  him,  in  the  second  year 

6  also,  and  in  the  third.  [Ch]  So  Jotham  became  mighty, 
because  he  ordered  his  ways  before  the  Lord  his  God. 

7  [H]  Now  the  rest  of  the  acts  of  Jotham,  and  all  his  wars, 
and  his  ways,  behold,  they  are  written  in  the  book  of  the 

8  kings  of  Israel  and  Judah.  He  was  five  and  twenty  years 
old  when  he  began  to  reign,  and  reigned  sixteen  years  in 

9  Jerusalem.  And  Jotham  slept  with  his  fathers,  and  they 
buried  him  in  the  city  of  David:  and  Ahaz  his  son 
reigned  in  his  stead. 

28      Ahaz  was  twenty  years  old  when  he  began  to  reign ; 


to  have  revolted  on  the  death  of  Uzziah  (cf.  xxvi.  8),  and  held  the 
territory  during  three  years.  Other  military  successes  are  hinted 
at  in  verse  7,  '  all  his  wars,' 

7.  in  the  book  of  the  kings:  cf.  Introd.  §  iv. 

(12)  xxviii.     Retgii  of  Ahaz. 

Considerable  new  matter  has  been  added  here  to  the  record  of 
the  reign  found  in  2  Kings  xvi.  2-17,  20.  Ahaz  is  an  example 
of  the  wicked  kings.  Following  three  able  and  devout  monarchs 
who  had  ruled  with  success  amid  great  prosperity  during  seventy 
years,  Ahaz  wilfully  apostatized  and,  for  some  unknown  reasons, 
imitated  the  house  of  Israel.  As  a  result  there  occurred  great 
military  disasters  at  the  hands  of  invaders.  First  Syria  defeated 
Judah  and  carried  away  numerous  captives.  Then  Samaria 
played  the  part  of  the  divine  scourge,  and  a  still  greater  captivity 
was  averted  only  by  the  interposition  of  a  prophet  of  Jehovah. 
This  chastisement  failed  to  change  Ahaz,  and  therefore  further 
disasters  were  suffered  at  the  hands  of  the  Edomites  and  of  the 
Philistines.  In  these  circumstances  Ahaz  robbed  the  Temple  to 
purchase  the  help  of  Assyria,  and  the  way  was  thus  prepared  for 
the  great  Captivity.  The  reign,  however,  closed  in  final  apostasy 
and  disaster.  The  whole  chapter  is  rhetorical  and  its  material  is 
used  with  great  effect  to  point  the  lessons  which  the  chronicler 
desires  to  draw  from  history. 

xxviii.   1-4,     Introductory. 

1.  Ahaz:  the  reign  should  be  dated  735-720  B.C.  The  LXX 
and  Syriac  give  his  age  as  twenty-five  at  the  time  of  his  accession. 


II   CHRONICLES  28.  2-6.     H  Ch^  Ch         287 

and  he  reigned  sixteen  years  in  Jerusalem :  and  he  did 
not   that  which   was   right   in   the   eyes  of  the  Lord, 
hke  David  his  father :  but  he  walked  in  the  ways  of  2 
the  kings  of  Israel,  and  made  also  molten  images  for  the 
Baalim.     Moreover  he  burnt  incense  in  the  valley  of  the  3 
son   of  Hinnom,  and  burnt  his   children   in   the   fire, 
according  to  the  abominations  of  the  heathen,  whom  the 
Lord  cast  out  before  the  children  of  Israel.     And  he  4 
sacrificed  and  burnt   incense  in  the  high   places,  and 
on  the  hills,  and  under  every  green  tree.      [Ch^]  Where-  5 
fore  the  Lord  his  God  delivered  him  into  the  hand 
of  the  king  of  Syria ;  and  they  smote  him,  and  carried 
away  of  his  a  great  multitude  of  captives,  and  brought 
them  to  Damascus.     And  he  was  also  delivered  into  the 
hand  of  the  king  of  Israel,  who  smote  him  with  a  great 
slaughter.     [Ch]  For  Pekah  the  son  of  Remaliah  slew  in  6 
Judah  an  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  in  one  day,  all  of 

2.  in  the  ways  of  the  kings  of  Israel:  no  reason  is  assigned 
for  this  apostasy  ;  possibly  he  may  have  had  an  idolatrous  mother, 
as  was  the  case  with  Ahaziah. 

3.  the  valley  of  the  son  of  Hinnom :  this  was  some  spot  in 
the  three  valleys  of  Jerusalem,  and  probably  received  its  name  from 
religious  reasons.  Among  the  idolatrous  rites  practised  there  under 
Ahaz  was  that  of  passing  the  children  through  the  fire — a  rite  some- 
how connected  with  child-sacrifice. 

4.  he  sacrificed :  the  king  set  the  practice  of  idolatry  personally, 
xxviii.  5-15.     Syro-Ephraimitic  War.     This  war  is  represented 

directly  as  a  Heaven-sent  chastisement.  The  paralysing  fear  which 
it  occasioned  is  well  described  in  Isaiah  vii. 

5.  the  king  of  Syria :  from  2  Kings  xvi.  5  we  learn  that  this 
was  Rezin,  who  had  already  become  a  tributary  of  Tiglath-pileser 
in  738  B.  c.  Through  this  war  Judah  lost  the  port  of  Elath 
(2  Kings  xvi.  6). 

6.  Pekah:  king  of  Israel  from  735  to  732  b. c.  In  one  decisive 
battle  he  slew  120,000  men  of  Judah,  and  among  them  three 
prominent  officials  of  the  palace,  including  Maaseiah,  a  relative  of 
the  king.  The  figures  are  very  large,  but  are  not  incredible  for  the 
fierce  tribal  wars  of  their  age.  The  bitterness  of  the  conflict  is 
described  in  verse  g  as  *a  rage  which  reached  to  heaven.' 


288  II   CHRONICLES  28.  7-13.     Ch 

them  valiant  men ;  because  they  had  forsaken  the  Lord, 

7  the  God  of  their  fathers.  And  Zichri,  a  mighty  man 
of  Ephraim^  slew  Maaseiah  the  king's  son,  and  Azrikam 
the  ruler  of  the  house,  and  Elkanah  that  was  next  to  the 

8  king.  And  the  children  of  Israel  carried  away  captive  of 
their  brethren  two  hundred  thousand,  women,  sons,  and 
daughters,  and  took  also  away  much  spoil  from  them,  and 

9  brought  the  spoil  to  Samaria.  But  a  prophet  of  the 
Lord  was  there,  whose  name  was  Oded  :  and  he  went  out 
to  meet  the  host  that  came  to  Samaria,  and  said  unto 
them,  Behold,  because  the  Lord,  the  God  of  your  fathers, 
was  wroth  with  Judah,  he  hath  delivered  them  into  your 
hand,  and  ye  have  slain  them  in  a  rage  which   hath 

10  reached  up  unto  heaven.  And  now  ye  purpose  to  keep 
under  the  children  of  Judah  and  Jerusalem  for  bondmen 
and  bondwomen  unto  you :  but  are  there  not  even  with 
you  trespasses  of  your  own  against  the  Lord  your  God  ? 

11  Now  hear  me  therefore,  and  send  back  the  captives, 
which  ye  have  taken  captive  of  your  brethren :  for  the 

12  fierce  wrath  of  the  Lord  is  upon  you.  Then  certain 
of  the  heads  of  the  children  of  Ephraim,  Azariah  the  son 
of  Johanan,  Berechiah  the  son  of  Meshillemoth,  and 
Jehizkiah  the  son  of  Shallum,  and  Amasa  the  son  of 
Hadlai,  stood  up  against  them  that  came  from  the  war, 

13  and  said  unto  them,  Ye  shall  not  bring  in  the  captives 
hither :  for  ye  purpose  that  which  will  bring  upon  us 
a  trespass  against  the  Lord,  to  add  unto  our  sins  and  to 

9.  Oded:  it  is  interesting  to  find  a  genuine  prophet  of  Jehovah 
in  Samaria.  Evidently  the  work  of  Elijah  lingered  still.  The 
prophet  reminds  the  victors  that  their  cruelty  calls  for  divine 
vengeance  and  bids  them  send  the  captives  back  to  their  homes. 

12.  Oded's  appeal  proved  cflTective.  Certain  Ephraimite  princes 
upheld  his  plea,  with  the  result  that  the  captives  were  clothed  and 
sent  back  to  Jericho. 


II    CHRONICLES  28.  14-19.     Ch  289 

our  trespass  :  for  our  trespass  is  great,  and  there  is  fierce 
wrath  against  Israel.  So  the  armed  men  left  the  captives  14 
and  the  spoil  before  the  princes  and  all  the  congregation. 
And  the  men  which  have  been  expressed  by  name  rose  15 
up,  and  took  the  captives,  and  with  the  spoil  clothed  all 
that  were  naked  among  them,  and  arrayed  them,  and 
shod  them,  and  gave  them  to  eat  and  to  drink,  and 
anointed  them,  and  carried  all  the  feeble  of  them  upon 
asses,  and  brought  them  to  Jericho,  the  city  of  palm  trees, 
unto  their  brethren  :  then  they  returned  to  Samaria. 

At  that  time  did  king  Ahaz  send  unto  the  kings  of  J  6 
Assyria  to  help  him.     For  again  the  Edomites  had  come  i7 
and    smitten    Judah,  and  carried   away   captives.     The  ^^ 
Philistines  also  had  invaded  the  cities  of  the  lowland,  and 
of  the  South  of  Judah,  and  had  taken  Beth-shemesh,  and 
Aijalon,  and  Gederoth,  and  Soco  with  the  towns  thereof, 
and  Timnah  with  the  towns  thereof,  Gimzo  also  and  the 
towns  thereof:  and  they  dwelt  there.     For  the  Lord  19 
brought  Judah  low  because  of  Ahaz  king  of  Israel ;  for 
he  had  dealt  wantonly  in  Judah,  and  trespassed  sore 

15.  Jericho:  a  city  of  Benjamin,  belonging  to  the  southern 
kingdom. 

xxviii.  16-25.  War  and  Decline.  The  entire  section  is  new 
matter,  but  should  be  compared  with  2  Kings  xvi.  7-18. 

16.  kiugfs  of  Assyria:  only  one  king  is  intended,  as  is  made 
clear  from  verse  20  and  the  versions.  Ahaz  actually  professed 
himself  a  vassal  of  Assyria.     Cf.  2  Kings  xvi.  7. 

17.  Por  ag'ain  the  Edomites  had  come :  the  invasion  of  Rezin 
had  enabled  these  hereditary  foes  of  Judah  to  escape  from  sub- 
jection and  make  reprisals. 

18.  Beth-shem,esh :  now  'Ain  Shems.  Aijalon :  the  modern 
Yalo.  Gederoth:  now  Ghedera.  Soco,  now  known  as  esh- 
Shuweikeh.  Timnah :  the  modern  Tilneh.  Gimzo :  now  called 
Jimza.  These  towns  all  lay  near  the  Judean  frontier  in  the 
Shephelah. 

19.  Ahaz  king-  of  Israel:  i.e.  of  Judah,  in  whom  the  chronicler 
sees  the  true  '  Israel.' 

U 


290  II    CHRONICLES  28.  20-26.  Ch  Ch" 

20  against  the  Lord.  And  Tilgath-pilneser  king  of  Assyria 
came  unto  him,  and  distressed  him,  but  strengthened  him 

21  not.  For  Ahaz  took  away  a  portion  out  of  the  house  of 
the  Lord,  and  out  of  the  house  of  the  king  and  of 
the  princes,  and  gave  it  unto  the  king  of  Assyria :  but  it 

22  helped  him  not.  And  in  the  time  of  his  distress  did  he 
trespass  yet  more  against  the  Lord,  this  same  king  Ahaz. 

23  For  he  sacrificed  unto  the  gods  of  Damascus,  which 
smote  him  :  and  he  said,  Because  the  gods  of  the  kings 
of  Syria  helped  them,  therefore  will  I  sacrifice  to  them, 
that  they  may  help  me.     But  they  were  the  ruin  of  him, 

24  and  of  all  Israel.  And  Ahaz  gathered  together  the 
vessels  of  the  house  of  God,  and  cut  in  pieces  the  vessels 
of  the  house  of  God,  and  shut  up  the  doors  of  the  house 
of  the  Lord  ;  and  he  made  him  altars  in  every  corner  of 

25  Jerusalem.  And  in  every  several  city  of  Judah  he  made 
high  places  to  burn  incense  unto  other  gods,  and 
provoked  to  anger  the  Lord,  the  God  of  his  fathers. 

26  [Ch^]  Now  the  rest  of  his  acts,  and  all  his  ways,  first  and 
last,  behold,  they  are  written  in  the  book  of  the  kings  of 

20.  Tilg-ath-pilneser.  Cf.  note  on  i  Chron.  v.  6  and  26. 
The  professed  vassalage  to  the  Assyrian  monarch  proved  only  a 
further  evil  to  the  faithless  king.  The  Assyrian,  indeed,  made  the 
appeal  of  Ahaz  a  pretext  for  strengthening  his  grip  upon  the  states 
of  Syria.  We  are  not  aware  of  the  date  of  this  unfortunate 
alliance  ;  but  we  learn  from  the  monuments  that  Tiglath-pileser 
had  subdued  and  depopulated  Galilee  in  733  B.C.,  had  captured 
Damascus  in  732  b.  c,  and  had  reduced  Samaria  by  722  b.  c. 

21.  Ahaz  plundered  the  Temple  to  secure  Ass3'rian  help. 

23.  the  gods  of  Damascus:  we  learn  from  2  Kings  xvi.  10-16 
that  Ahaz  went  to  Damascus  to  pay  homage  to  the  victorious 
Tiglath-pileser.     When  there,  he  adopted  the  Syrian  cult. 

24.  The  worship  of  Jehovah  in  the  Temple  was  actually  sup- 
pressed in  favour  of  heathen  rites.  Jerusalem  was  given  over  to 
idolatry. 

xxviii.   26,  27.     Conclusion. 

26.  the  hook  of  the  king's:  cf.  Introd.  §  iv. 


II    CHRONICLES  28.  27— 29.  3.     Ch^  H  Ch    291 

Judah  and  Israel.     And  Ahaz  slept  with  his  fathers,  and  27 
they  buried  him  in  the  city,  even  in  Jerusalem ;  for  they 
brought  him  not  into  the  sepulchres  of  the  kings  of 
Israel :    and  Hezekiah  his  son  reigned  in  his  stead. 

[H]  Hezekiah  began  to  reign  when  he  was  five  and  29 
twenty  years  old ;  and  he  reigned  nine  and  twenty  years 
in  Jerusalem  :   and  his  mother's  name  was  Abijah  the 
daughter  of  Zechariah.     And  he  did  that  which  was  right  2 
in  the  eyes  of  the  Lord,  according  to  all  that  David  his 
father  had  done.     [Ch]  He  in  the  first  year  of  his  reign,  3 
in  the  first  month,  opened  the  doors  of  the  house  of  the 

27.  Ahaz  stands  out  in  the  narratives  of  the  chronicler  as  the 
most  glaring  illustration  of  an  apostate  king. 

(13)  xxix-xxxii.     Reign  0/ Hezekiah, 

Ahaz  was  succeeded  by  Hezekiah,  a  devout  and  reforming 
monarch  whose  v^'hole  efforts  were  directed  to  rescuing  his 
country  from  the  ruin  produced  by  his  father's  policy.  Com- 
mencing with  a  moral  and  religious  reformation,  he  purged  the 
land  of  idolatry  and  set  up  anew  the  worship  of  Jehovah,  enrich- 
ing the  musical  service  of  the  Temple  and  celebrating  a  great 
Passover.  His  prosperous  reign  closed  with  the  remarkable 
deliverance  from  Sennacherib. 

For  his  material  the  chronicler  has  used  sources  identical  with 
2  Kings  xviii.  1-7,  13,  17-37,  ^ix.  1-37,  and  xx.  He  has  both 
abbreviated  and  amplified  his  originals,  and  has  produced  thereby 
a  narrative  which  is  virtually  an  independent  one.  During  this 
reign  Isaiah  continued  his  ministry,  and  the  student  should  not  fail 
to  compare  the  narrative  of  Chronicles  with  Isa.  xxxvi  to  xxxix. 

xxix.     Religious  Reform. 

xxix.   1-2.     Introductory. 

1.  Hezekiah:  the  reign  should  be  dated  720-692  b.  c. 

xxix.  3-19.  The  Temple  purified.  The  ensuing  narratives  have 
a  strong  Levitic  tinge  about  them,  and  the  whole  subject  touched 
upon  is  one  over  which  the  chronicler  might  linger  with  special 
pleasure  ;  but  there  is  no  ground  for  reading  into  it  any  animosity 
towards  the  Aaronic  priests  as  distinguished  from  the  Levites. 

3.  in  the  first  month :  i.  e.  Nisan,  the  first  month  of  the 
ecclesiastical  year  which  followed  Hezekiah's  succession. 

opened  the  doors  of  the  house  of  the  ZiORD :   cf.  xxviii.  24. 

U   2 


292  II    CHRONICLES  29.  4-ir.     Ch 

4  Lord,  and  repaired  them.  And  he  brought  in  the 
priests  and  the  Levites,  and  gathered  them  together  into 

5  the  broad  place  on  the  east,  and  said  unto  them,  Hear 
me,  ye  Levites  ;  now  sanctify  yourselves,  and  sanctify  the 
house  of  the  Lord,  the  God  of  your  fathers,  and  carry 

6  forth  the  filthiness  out  of  the  holy  place.  For  our 
fathers  have  trespassed,  and  done  that  which  was  evil  in 
the  sight  of  the  Lord  our  God,  and  have  forsaken  him, 
and  have  turned  away  their  faces  from  the  habitation  of 

7  the  Lord,  and  turned  their  backs.  Also  they  have  shut 
up  the  doors  of  the  porch,  and  put  out  the  lamps,  and 
have  not  burned  incense  nor  offered  burnt  offerings  in 

8  the  holy  place  unto  the  God  of  Israel.  Wherefore  the 
wrath  of  the  Lord  was  upon  Judah  and  Jerusalem,  and 
he  hath  delivered  them  to  be  tossed  to  and  fro,  to  be  an 
astonishment,  and  an  hissing,  as  ye  see  with  your  eyes. 

9  For,  lo,  our  fathers  have  fallen  by  the  sword,  and  our 
sons  and  our  daughters  and  our  wives  are  in  captivity 

10  for  this.  Now  it  is  in  mine  heart  to  make  a  covenant  with 
the  Lord,  the  God  of  Israel,  that  his  fierce  anger  may 

11  turn  away  from  us.  My  sons,  be  not  now  negligent :  for 
the  Lord  hath  chosen  you  to  stand  before  him,  to 
minister  unto  him,  and  that  ye  should  be  his  ministers, 
and  burn  incense. 


4.  the  priests  and  the  Zievites :  the  reform  was  from  the 
outset  entrusted  almost  wholly  to  the  Levites  and  there  is  little 
further  mention  of  the  priests.  These  reforms  must  have  been 
sufficiently  arduous  after  sixteen  years  of  established  idolatry',  yet 
the  unbroken  record  of  disaster  under  Ahaz  probably  paved  the 
way  in  the  national  sympathies. 

the  broad  place  on  the  east :  1.  e.  the  open  space  before  the 
east  front  of  the  Temple. 

5-11.  Hezekiah's  address  to  the  Levites  recalls  the  national 
desolation,  the  prevalence  of  idolatry,  and  the  desertion  of  Jehovah, 
and  it  calls  for  zeal  in  religious  reform. 


II   CHRONICLES  29.  13-18.     Ch  293 

Then  the  Levites  arose,  Mahath  the  son  of  Amasai,  12 
and  Joel  the  son  of  Azariah,  of  the  sons  of  the  Kohath- 
ites  :  and  of  the  sons  of  Merari,  Kish  the  son  of  Abdi, 
and  Azariah  the  son  of  Jehallelel  :  and  of  the  Gershon- 
ites,  Joah  the  son  of  Zimmah,  and  Eden  the  son  of  Joah  : 
and  of  the  sons  of  Elizaphan,  Shimri  and  Jeuel :  and  of  13 
the  sons  of  Asaph,  Zechariah  and  Mattaniah  :  and  of  the  14 
sons  of  Heman,  Jehuel  and  Shimei  :  and  of  the  sons  of 
Jeduthun,   Shemaiah  and  Uzziel.      And  they   gathered  15 
their  brethren,  and  sanctified  themselves,  and  went  in, 
according  to  the  commandment  of  the  king  by  the  words 
of  the  Lord,  to  cleanse  the  house  of  the  Lord.     And  16 
the  priests  went  in  unto  the  inner  part  of  the  house  of 
the  Lord,  to  cleanse  it,  and  brought  out  all  the  unclean- 
ness  that  they  found  in  the  temple  of  the  Lord  into  the 
court  of  the  house  of  the  Lord.     And  the  Levites  took 
it,  to  carry  it  out  abroad  to  the  brook  Kidron.    Now  they  17 
began  on  the  first  day  of  the  first  month  to  sanctify,  and 
on  the  eighth  day  of  the  month  came  they  to  the  porch  of 
the  Lord  ;  and  they  sanctified  the  house  of  the  Lord  in 
eight  days :  and  on  the  sixteenth  day  of  the  first  month 
they  made  an  end.     Then  they  went  in  to  Hezekiah  the  18 
king  within  the  palace,  and  said,  We  have  cleansed  all  the 
house  of  the  Lord,  and  the  altar  of  burnt  offering,  with 

12-14.  The  response  of  the  Levites  is  made,  not  in  words  but 
in  deeds.  They  are  led  in  the  work  of  purging  the  Temple  by  the 
representatives  of  the  three  great  Levitic  clans,  Kohath,  Merari, 
and  Gershon,  together  with  the  leaders  of  the  three  musical  guilds 
of  Asaph,  Heman,  and  Jeduthun,  to  whom  are  added  the  clansmen 
of  Elizaphan,  a  Kohathite  chief. 

15-16.  The  Levites  are  assembled  and  oncsecrated  for  the 
work,  and  at  once  begin  to  co  operate  with  the  priests  in  cleansing 
the  Temple. 

17.  Eight  days  are  spent  in  cleansing  away  the  refuse  from  the 
courts,  and  eight  more  in  purifying  the  Temple  itself. 


294  n   CHRONICLES  29.  19-26.     Ch 

all  the  vessels  thereof,  and  the  table  of  shewbread,  with 

19  all  the  vessels  thereof.  Moreover  all  the  vessels,  which 
king  Ahaz  in  his  reign  did  cast  away  when  he  trespassed, 
have  we  prepared  and  sanctified ;  and,  behold,  they  are 
before  the  altar  of  the  Lord. 

20  Then  Hezekiah  the  king  arose  early,  and  gathered  the 
princes  of  the  city,  and  went  up  to  the  house  of  the 

21  Lord.  And  they  brought  seven  bullocks,  and  seven 
rams,  and  seven  lambs,  and  seven  he-goats,  for  a  sin 
offering  for  the  kingdom  and  for  the  sanctuary  and  for 
Judah,     And   he  commanded   the  priests  the  sons  of 

22  Aaron  to  offer  them  on  the  altar  of  the  Lord.  So  they 
killed  the  bullocks,  and  the  priests  received  the  blood, 
and  sprinkled  it  on  the  altar :  and  they  killed  the  rams, 
and  sprinkled  the  blood  upon  the  altar :  they  killed  also 

23  the  lambs,  and  sprinkled  the  blood  upon  the  altar.  And 
they  brought  near  the  he-goats  for  the  sin  offering  before 
the  king  and  the  congregation  ;  and  they  laid  their  hands 

24  upon  them  :  and  the  priests  killed  them,  and  they  made 
a  sin  offering  with  their  blood  upon  the  altar,  to  make 
atonement  for  all  Israel :  for  the  king  commanded  that 
the  burnt  offering  and  the  sin  offering  should  be  made  for 

25  all  Israel.  And  he  set  the  Levites  in  the  house  of  the 
Lord  with  cymbals,  with  psalteries,  and  with  harps, 
according  to  the  commandment  of  David,  and  of  Gad 
the  king's  seer,  and  Nathan  the  prophet :  for  the  com- 

26  mandment  was  of  the  Lord  by  his  prophets.     And  the 

xxix.  20-30.  The  Temple  re-dedicated.  The  princes  of  Jerusalem 
at  once  proceed  with  the  king  to  offer  dedicatory  sacrifices.  These 
rites  are  performed  in  harmony  with  the  directions  given  in  Lev. 
i-vi. 

25.  After  the  sin  offerings  for  the  king  and  people,  there 
followed  the  service  of  praise  based  upon  the  ancient  royal  ordi- 
nances for  the  Temple  worship. 


II   CHRONICLES  29.  27-34.     Ch  295 

Levites  stood  with  the  instruments  of  David,  and  the 
priests  with  the  trumpets.     And  Hezekiah  commanded  27 
to  offer  the  burnt  offering  upon  the  altar.     And  when 
the  burnt  offering  began,  the  song  of  the  Lord  began 
also,  and  the  trumpets,  together  with  the  instruments  of 
David  king  of  Israel.     And  all  the  congregation  wor-  28 
shipped,    and    the    singers    sang,    and    the    trumpeters 
sounded ;  all  this  conti7iued  until  the  burnt  offering  was 
finished.     And  when  they  had  made  an  end  of  offering,  29 
the  king  and  all  that  were  present  with  him  bowed  them- 
selves and  worshipped.     Moreover  Hezekiah  the  king  30 
and  the  princes  commanded  the  Levites  to  sing  praises 
unto  the  Lord  with  the  words  of  David,  and  of  Asaph 
the  seer.     And  they  sang  praises  with  gladness,  and  they 
bowed  their  heads  and  worshipped.     Then   Hezekiah  31 
answered  and  said,  Now  ye  have  consecrated  yourselves 
unto  the  Lord,  come  near  and  bring  sacrifices  and  thank 
offerings  into  the  house  of  the  Lord.     And  the  congrega- 
tion brought  in  sacrifices  and  thank  offerings;  and  as 
many  as  were  of  a  willing  heart  brought  burnt  offerings. 
And   the   number   of   the    burnt   offerings^    which    the  32 
congregation  brought,  was  threescore  and  ten  bullocks, 
an  hundred  rams,  and  two  hundred   lambs  :   all  these 
were    for   a    burnt    offering    to    the    Lord.     And    the  33 
consecrated   things  were  six   hundred  oxen  and   three 
thousand  sheep.     But  the  priests  were  too  few,  so  that  34 
they  could  not  flay  all  the  burnt  offerings  :   wherefore 
their  brethren  the  Levites  did  help  them,  till  the  work 
was  ended,  and  until  the  priests  had  sanctified  them- 

31-36.  Public  Offerings.  The  royal  dedication  ceremony  is 
followed  by  an  appeal  from  Hezekiah  for  a  national  and  voluntary 
consecration.  The  response  is  such  that  the  priests  cannot  under- 
take the  necessary  sacrificial  duties,  and  have  to  accept  the  aid  of 
the  more  zealous  Levites. 


296         II   CHRONICLES  29.  35—30.  3.     Ch 

selves  :  for  the  Levites  were  more  upright  in  heart  to 

35  sanctify  themselves  than  the  priests.  And  also  the  burnt 
offerings  were  in  abundance,  with  the  fat  of  the  peace 
offerings,  and  with  the  drink  offerings  for  every  burnt 
offering.     So  the  service  of  the  house  of  the  Lord  was 

36  set  in  order.  And  Hezekiah  rejoiced,  and  all  the  people, 
because  of  that  which  God  had  prepared  for  the  people  : 
for  the  thing  was  done  suddenly. 

30  And  Hezekiah  sent  to  all  Israel  and  Judah,  and  wrote 
letters  also  to  Ephraim  and  Manasseh,  that  they  should 
come  to  the  house  of  the  Lord  at  Jerusalem,  to  keep 

2  the  passover  unto  the  Lord,  the  God  of  Israel.  For  the 
king  had  taken  counsel,  and  his  princes,  and  all  the 
congregation  in  Jerusalem,  to  keep  the  passover  in  the 

3  second  month.     For  they  could  not  keep  it  at  that  time, 

XXX.     The  Great  Passover. 

The  purification  of  the  Temple  had  been  accomplished  by  the 
Levitic  and  priestly  clans ;  but  the  re-dedication  of  the  Temple  had 
mainly  concerned  the  inhabitants  of  Jerusalem,  and  the  provincials 
needed  to  be  won  for  Jehovah.  Consequently  the  great  religious 
festivals  had  to  be  revived  to  gather  the  people  from  all  over  the 
land.  Hence  Hezekiah  instituted  his  great  Passover  celebration. 
In  the  description  of  this  there  is  a  close  and  perhaps  inevitable 
resemblance  to  the  other  great  Passover  described  by  the  chronicler, 
viz.  that  of  Josiah  in  ch.  xxxv. 

XXX.  I- 1 2.      Preparation  for  the  Passover. 

1.  to  all  Israel  and  Judah:  as  Samaria  had  fallen  in  722  b.  c. 
the  northern  kingdom  was  only  represented  by  the  remnants  of 
the  tribes.  A  correct  view  of  the  chronology  of  the  period 
(cf.  Skinner  on  '  Kings,'  Century  Bible)  reveals  the  fact  that 
Hosea's  reign  over  Israel  really  terminated  before  Hezekiah's 
accession  to  the  throne  of  Judah.  The  date  given  in  2  Kings 
xviii.  10  is  inaccurate.  This  being  so,  the  elaborate  argument  of 
Keil,  in  which  he  attempts  to  show  that  the  great  Passover  must 
have  occurred  later  in  Hezekiah's  reign  than  the  first  year,  breaks 
down.  We  can,  therefore,  see  how  it  was  possible  for  Hezekiah 
to  make  a  special  effort  to  secure  the  co-operation  of  the  northern 
tribes  in  this  festival. 


II   CHRONICLES  30.  4-ro.     Ch  297 

because   the   priests  had  not  sanctified   themselves   in 
sufficient  number,  neither  had  the  people  gathered  them- 
selves together  to  Jerusalem.     And  the  thing  was  right  4 
in  the  eyes  of  the  king  and  of  all  the  congregation.     So  5 
they  established  a  decree  to  make  proclamation  through- 
out all  Israel,  from  Beer-sheba  even  to  Dan,  that  they 
should  come  to  keep  the  passover  unto  the  Lord,  the 
God  of  Israel,  at  Jerusalem  :  for  they  had  not  kept  it  in 
great  numbers  in  such  sort  as  it  is  written.     So  the  posts  6 
went  with  the  letters    from   the  king  and   his  princes 
throughout  all  Israel  and  Judah,  and  according  to  the 
commandment  of  the  king,  sayings  Ye  children  of  Israel, 
turn  again  unto  the  Lord,  the  God  of  Abraham,  Isaac, 
and  Israel,  that  he  may  return  to  the  remnant  that  are 
escaped  of  you  out  of  the  hand  of  the  kings  of  Assyria. 
And  be  not  ye  like  your  fathers,  and  like  your  brethren,  7 
which  trespassed  against  the  Lord,   the  God  of  their 
fathers,  so  that  he  gave  them  up  to  desolation,  as  ye  see. 
Now  be  ye  not  stiffnecked^  as  your  fathers  were ;   but  8 
yield   yourselves   unto   the   Lord,  and   enter   into   his 
sanctuary,  which  he  hath  sanctified  for  ever,  and  serve 
the  Lord  your  God,  that  his  fierce  anger  may  turn  away 
from  you.     For  if  ye  turn  again  unto  the  Lord,  your  9 
brethren  and  your  children  shall  find  compassion  before 
them  that  led  them  captive,  and  shall  come  again  into 
this  land :  for  the  Lord  your  God  is  gracious  and  mer- 
ciful, and  will  not  turn  away  his  face  from  you,  if  ye 
return  unto  him.     So  the  posts  passed  from  city  to  city  10 

XXX.  6-10.  The  royal  posts  carried  the  invitation  of  Hezekiah 
throughout  the  land.  In  the  letters  the  king  pointed  out  the 
results  of  apostasy  and  pleaded  for  a  return  to  the  ancestral  faith. 
The  plea  was  strengthened  by  a  reference  to  the  character  of 
Jehovah  (verse  9). 

6.  the  kings  of  Assyria :  i.  e.  Tiglath-pileser  and  Shalmaneser. 


298  II   CHRONICLES  30.  ir-17.     Ch 

through  the  country  of  Ephraim  and  Manasseh,  even 
unto  Zebulun :  but  they  laughed   them   to   scorn,  and 

11  mocked  them.  Nevertheless  divers  of  Asher  and  Man- 
asseh and  of  Zebulun  humbled  themselves,  and  came  to 

12  Jerusalem.  Also  in  Judah  was  the  hand  of  God  to  give 
them  one  heart,  to  do  the  commandment  of  the  king  and 

13  of  the  princes  by  the  word  of  the  Lord.  And  there 
assembled  at  Jerusalem  much  people  to  keep  the  feast  of 
unleavened  bread  in  the  second  month,   a  very  great 

14  congregation.  And  they  arose  and  took  away  the  altars 
that  were  in  Jerusalem,  and  all  the  altars  for  incense 
took  they  away,  and  cast  them  into  the  brook  Kidron. 

15  Then  they  killed  the  passover  on  the  fourteenth  day  of 
the  second  month  :  and  the  priests  and  the  Levites  were 
ashamed^  and  sanctified  themselves,  and  brought  burnt 

16  offerings  into  the  house  of  the  Lord.  And  they  stood 
in  their  place  after  their  order,  according  to  the  law  of 
Moses  the  man  of  God  :  the  priests  sprinkled  the  blood, 

17  which  they  received  oi  the  hand  of  the  Levites.  For  there 
were  many  in  the  congregation  that  had  not  sanctified 
themselves  :   therefore  the  Levites   had   the   charge   of 

10,11.  Therewas  no  general  response  on  the  part  of  the  northern 
remnants,  except  contemptuous  refusal  of  Hezekiah's  invitation. 
Stray  pilgrims  alone  journeyed  to  Jerusalem  from  four  of  the 
northern  tribes  (verse  18). 

XXX.   13-22.     Celebration  of  the  Passover. 

14.  took  away  the  altars :  i.  e.  they  removed  every  trace  of 
the  idolatry  with  which  Ahaz  had  filled  Jerusalem.  Among 
other  objects  to  be  destroj^ed,  the  author  of  Kings  names,  but 
the  chronicler  omits,  the  brazen  serpent  of  Moses. 

15.  the  Iievites  were  ashamed:  the  Levites  found  themselves 
spurred  on  to  their  duties  by  the  superior  zeal  of  the  people. 

16.  17.  It  was  the  duty  of  the  head  of  each  household  to  slay 
the  lamb  and  hand  the  blood  to  the  priest  ;  but  ceremonial  un- 
cleanness  prevented  this,  and  the  Levites  performed  the  duty  in 
place  of  the  householders. 


II  CHRONICLES  30.  18-24.     Ch  299 

killing  the  passovers  for  every  one  that  was  not  clean,  to 
sanctify  them  unto  the  Lord.     For  a  multitude  of  the  18 
people,  even  many  of  Ephraim  and  Manasseh,  Issachar 
and  Zebulun,  had  not  cleansed  themselves,  yet  did  they 
eat    the   passover   otherwise    than    it    is    written.     For 
Hezekiah  had  prayed  for  them,  saying,  The  good  Lord 
pardon  every  one  that  setteth  his  heart  to  seek  God,  the  19 
Lord,  the  God  of  his  fathers,  though  he  be  not  cleansed 
according  to  the  purification  of  the  sanctuary.     And  the  20 
Lord  hearkened  to  Hezekiah,  and  healed  the  people. 
And  the  children  of  Israel  that  were  present  at  Jerusalem  21 
kept  the  feast  of  unleavened  bread  seven  days  with  great 
gladness :   and  the  Levites  and  the  priests  praised  the 
Lord  day  by  day,  singing  with  loud  instruments  unto  the 
Lord.     And  Hezekiah  spake  comfortably  unto  all  the  22 
Levites  that  were  well  skilled  in  the  service  of  the  Lord. 
So  they  did  eat  throughout  the  feast  for  the  seven  days, 
offering  sacrifices  of  peace  offerings,  and  making  con- 
fession to  the  Lord,  the  God  of  their  fathers.     And  the  23 
whole  congregation  took  counsel  to  keep  other  seven 
days:   and  they  kept  other  seven  days   with  gladness. 
For  Hezekiah  king  of  Judah  did  give  to  the  congregation  24 

18, 19.  As  the  theocratic  king,  Hezekiah  pleads  for  pardon  for 
the  irregularity  of  tlie  observances. 

20.  healed  the  people  :  probably  there  were  alread3''  signs  of 
the  outbreak  of  plague  among  the  assembled  multitudes,  or  else 
the  meaning  is  that  Jehovah  refrained  from  punishing. 

22.  Hezekiah  spake  comfortably:  the  king  commended  the 
zeal  of  the  Levites. 

23-27.  Conchision  of  the  Festival.  The  national  assembly  deter- 
mined to  continue  the  festival  throughout  a  second  week.  This 
is  rendered  possible  by  the  lavish  gifts  made  by  king  and  princes 
for  the  sacrificial  meals  and  by  the  readiness  of  the  priests  to 
undertake  the  labour  involved.  At  the  close  of  the  fortnight's 
rejoicing  the  assembly  is  dismissed  with  the  Levitic  benediction, 
and  the  divine  blessing  rests  upon  the  people. 


300    II    CHRONICLES  30.  25— 31.  3.     Ch  Ch^  Ch 

for  offerings  a  thousand  bullocks  and  seven  thousand 
sheep ;  and  the  princes  gave  to  the  congregation  a 
thousand  bullocks  and  ten  thousand  sheep :  and  a  great 

25  number  of  priests  sanctified  themselves.  And  all  the 
congregation  of  Judah,  with  the  priests  and  the  Levites, 
and  all  the  congregation  that  came  out  of  Israel,  and  the 
strangers  that  came  out  of  the  land  of  Israel,  and  that 

26  dwelt  in  Judah,  rejoiced.  So  there  was  great  joy  in 
Jerusalem :  for  since  the  time  of  Solomon  the  son  of 
David  king  of  Israel  there  was  not  the  like  in  Jerusalem. 

27  Then  the  priests  the  Levites  arose  and  blessed  the 
people :  and  their  voice  was  heard,  and  their  prayer 
came  up  to  his  holy  habitation,  even  unto  heaven. 

31  Now  when  all  this  was  finished,  all  Israel  that  were 
present  went  out  to  the  cities  of  Judah,  [Ch^]  and  brake 
in  pieces  the  pillars,  and  hewed  down  the  Asherim,  and 
brake  down  the  high  places  and  [Ch]  the  altars  out  of 
all  Judah  and  Benjamin,  in  Ephraim  also  and  Manasseh, 
until  they  had  destroyed  them  all.  Then  all  the  children 
of  Israel  returned,  every  man  to  his  possession,  into  their 

2  own  cities.  And  Hezekiah  appointed  the  courses  of  the 
priests  and  the  Levites  after  their  courses,  every  man 
according  to  his  service,  both  the  priests  and  the  Levites, 
for  burnt  offerings  and  for  peace  offerings,  to  minister, 
and  to  give  thanks,  and   to  praise  in  the  gates  of  the 

3  camp  of  the  Lord.     He  appointed  also  the  king's  portion 

xxxi.     Rehobilitation  of  Worship. 

1.  The  worshippers  returned  to  display  their  zeal  for  Jehovah 
by  a  great  iconoclastic  crusade  in  which  they  purged  the  provinces 
of  all  trace  of  idolatry. 

2-6.  Hezekiah  meantime  reorganized  the  services  of  the 
sanctuary.  With  royal  bounty  he  made  provision  for  the  regular 
sacrifices  ;  and  the  people  responded  liberally  to  his  command  to 
support  the  priestly  orders. 


II   CHRONICLES  31.  4-11.     Ch  301 

of  his  substance  for  the  burnt  offerings,  to  wit,  for  the 
morning   and    evening    burnt   offerings^  and   the   burnt 
offerings  for  the  sabbaths^,  and  for  the  new  moons,  and 
for  the  set  feasts,  as  it  is  written  in  the  law  of  the  Lord. 
Moreover  he  commanded  the  people  that  dwelt  in  Jeru-  4 
salem  to  give  the  portion  of  the  priests  and  the  Levites, 
that  they  might  give  themselves  to  the  law  of  the  Lord. 
And  as  soon  as  the  commandment  came  abroad,  the  5 
children  of  Israel  gave  in  abundance  the  firstfruits  of 
corn,  wine,  and  oil,  and  honey,  and  of  all  the  increase 
of  the  field ;  and  the  tithe  of  all  things  brought  they  in 
abundantly.     And  the  children  of  Israel  and  Judah,  that  6 
dwelt  in  the  cities  of  Judah,  they  also  brought  in  the 
tithe  of  oxen  and  sheep,  and  the  tithe  of  dedicated  things 
which  were  consecrated  unto  the  Lord  their  God,  and 
laid  them  by  heaps.     In  the  third  month  they  began  to  7 
lay  the  foundation  of  the  heaps,  and  finished  them  in  the 
seventh  month.     And  when  Hezekiah  and  the  princes  8 
came  and  saw  the  heaps,  they  blessed  the  Lord,  and 
his  people  Israel.     Then  Hezekiah  questioned  with  the  9 
priests   and   the    Levites   concerning   the   heaps.     And  10 
Azariah  the  chief  priest,  of  the  house  of  Zadok,  answered 
him  and  said.  Since  the  people  began  to  bring  the  obla- 
tions into  the  house  of  the  Lord,  we  have  eaten  and  had 
enough,  and  have  left  plenty :  for  the  Lord  hath  blessed 
his  people;  and  that  which  is  left  is  this  great  store. 
Then  Hezekiah  commanded  to  prepare  chambers  in  the  1 1 

9.  questioned  .  .  .  concerningr  the  heaps:  the  king  conferred 
with  the  Levites  concerning  the  tithes  and  offerings  which  the 
people  had  brought  for  their  support. 

10.  Azariah:  this  may  have  been  the  same  who  resisted  the 
irregular  acts  of  Uzziah  forty  years  before.  He  declares  that  the 
offerings  are  more  than  sufficient. 

11.  Hezekiah  orders  the  building  of  new  store-chambers. 


302        II    CHRONICLES  31.  12-19.     Ch  R 

12  house  of  the  Lord  ;  and  they  prepared  them.  And  they 
brought  in  the  oblations  and  the  tithes  and  the  dedicated 
things  faithfully  :    and  over  them  Conaniah  the  Levite 

1 3  was  ruler,  and  Shimei  his  brother  was  second.  And  Jehiel, 
and  Azaziah,  and  Nahath,  and  Asahel,  and  Jerimoth, 
and  Jozabad,  and  Eliel,  and  Ismachiah,  and  Mahath, 
and  Benaiah,  were  overseers  under  the  hand  of  Conaniah 
and  Shimei  his  brother,  by  the  appointment  of  Hezekiah 
the  king,  and  Azariah  the  ruler  of  the  house  of  God. 

14  And  Kore  the  son  of  Imnah  the  Levite,  the  porter  at  the 
east  gate^  was  over  the  freewill  offerings  of  God,  to 
distribute  the  oblations  of  the  Lord,  and  the  most  holy 

15  things.  And  under  him  were  Eden,  and  Miniamin,  and 
Jeshua,  and  Shemaiah,  Amariah,  and  Shecaniah,  in  the 
cities  of  the  priests,  in  their  set  office,  to  give  to  their 
brethren  by  courses,  as  well  to  the  great  as  to  the  small : 

16  beside  them  that  were  reckoned  by  genealogy  of  males, 
from  three  years  old  and  upward,  even  every  one  that 
entered  into  the  house  of  the  Lord,  as  the  duty  of  every 
day  required^  for  their  service  in  their  charges  according 

17  to  their  courses  ;  [R]  and  them  that  were  reckoned  by 
genealogy  of  the  priests  by  their  fathers'  houses,  and  the 
Levites   from   twenty   years   old   and   upward,  in   their 

18  charges  by  their  courses ;  and  them  that  were  reckoned 
by  genealogy  of  all  their  little  ones,  their  wives,  and 
their  sons,  and  their  daughters,  through  all  the  congrega- 
tion :  for  in  their  set  office  they  sanctified  themselves  in 

19  holiness  :  also  for  the  sons  of  Aaron  the  priests,  which 

12-14.  With  his  usual  fondness  for  names  and  statistics  the 
chronicler  mentions  the  overseers  of  the  store-chambers  and  the 
officials  occupied  in  the  distribution  of  the  offerings.  From  this 
participation  in  the  gifts  no  qualified  recipient  was  excluded. 

17-19.  These  verses  are  parenthetical  and  probably  due  to 
a  later  hand. 


II  CHRONICLES  31.  2c— 32.  3.     R  Ch  Ch-  Ch    303 

were  in  the  fields  of  the  suburbs  of  their  cities,  in  every 
several  city,  there  were  men  that  were  expressed  by  name, 
to  give  portions  to  all  the  males  among  the  priests,  and 
to  all  that  were  reckoned  by  genealogy  among  the  Levites. 
[Ch]  And  thus  did  Hezekiah  throughout  all  Judah ;  and  20 
he  wrought  that  which  was  good  and  right  and  faithful 
before  the  Lord  his  God.  And  in  every  work  that  he  21 
began  in  the  service  of  the  house  of  God,  and  in  the  law, 
and  in  the  commandments,  to  seek  his  God,  he  did  it 
with  all  his  heart,  and  prospered. 

[Ch""]  After  these  things,  and  this  faithfulness.  Senna-  32 
cherib  king  of  Assyria  came,  and  entered  into  Judah,  and 
encamped  against  the  fenced  cities,  and  thought  to  win 
them  for  himself.     [Ch]  And  when  Hezekiah  saw  that  2 
Sennacherib  was  come,  and  that  he  was  purposed  to  fight 
against  Jerusalem,  he  took  counsel  with  his  princes  and  3 

xxxii.     Sentiacherib^ s  Invasion  and  Hezekiah' s  Sickness. 

The  narrative  of  this  chapter  bears  a  close  relation  to  the  parallel 
composite  narrative  of  2  Kings  xviii.  18 — xix.  21,  although  there 
are  considerable  variations.  Independent  documents  must  have 
been  used  for  much  of  the  material,  yet  the  narrative  of  Isa. 
xxxvi-xxxix  received  little  attention.  We  learn  from  Assyrian 
records  that  in  701  b,  c.  Sennacherib  sought  to  reduce  the  Syrian 
states  which  had  revolted  on  the  death  of  Sargon  in  705  b.  c. 
Without  great  difficulty  he  subdued  Phoenicia  and  Philistia  and 
defeated  a  relieving  force  from  Egypt.  Thereupon  he  turned  his 
attention  to  Judah,  captured  forty-six  of  its  fortified  towns  and 
invested  the  capital,  with  the  result  that  Hezekiah  paid  tribute 
and  Sennacherib  returned  to  Nineveh.  The  chronicler  describes 
the  campaign  solely  as  a  proof  of  the  power  of  God  to  deliver 
a  faithful  king.  In  the  main  he  abridges  the  account  of  2  Kings, 
although  he  gives  an  independent  account  of  Hezekiah's  measures 
for  the  defence  of  Jerusalem  (verses  2-8). 

xxxii.  1-23.     Sennacherib'' s  Campaign. 

1.  Sennacherib :  the  son  of  Sargon,  king  of  Assyria  from 
705-682  B.  c.     The  Assyrian  form  of  the  name  is  Sin-ahe-erba. 

thought  to  win  them :    he  had  already  reduced  many  of 
them  and  had  probably  advanced  as  far  as  Lachish. 


304  II    CHRONICLES  32.  4-10.     Ch  Ch^ 

his  mighty  men  to  stop  the  waters  of  the  fountains  which 

4  were  without  the  city ;  and  they  helped  him.  So  there 
was  gathered  much  people  together,  and  they  stopped  all 
the  fountains,  and  the  brook  that  flowed  through  the 
midst   of  the   land,  saying.  Why   should   the   kings    of 

5  Assyria  come,  and  find  much  water?  And  he  took 
courage,  and  built  up  all  the  wall  that  was  broken  down, 
and  raised  //  up  to  the  towers,  and  the  other  wall  with- 
out, and  strengthened  Millo  in  the  city  of  David,  and 

6  made  weapons  and  shields  in  abundance.  And  he  set 
captains  of  war  over  the  people,  and  gathered  them 
together  to  him  in  the  broad  place  at  the  gate  of  the  city, 

7  and  spake  comfortably  to  them,  saying,  Be  strong  and  of 
a  good  courage,  be  not  afraid  nor  dismayed  for  the  king 
of  Assyria,  nor  for  all  the  multitude  that  is  with  him : 

8  for  there  is  a  greater  with  us  than  with  him  :  wuth  him  is 
an  arm  of  flesh ;  but  with  us  is  the  Lord  our  God  to 
help  us,  and  to  fight  our  battles.  And  the  people  rested 
themselves  upon  the  words  of  Hezekiah  king  of  Judah. 

9  [Ch^]  After  this  did  Sennacherib  king  of  Assyria  send 
his  servants  to  Jerusalem,  (now  he  was  before  Lachish, 
and  all  his  power  with  him,)  unto  Hezekiah  king  of  Judah, 

10  and  unto  all  Judah  that  were  at  Jerusalem,  saying.  Thus 

3.  to  stop  the  waters :  recent  explorations  have  revealed  an 
elaborate  system  of  aqueducts  and  watercourses,  just  such  as 
Hezekiah  might  well  construct  to  supply  the  capital  during  siege 
and  to  foil  the  invaders. 

5.  the  other  wall  without:  i.  e.  the  fortification  of  the  lower 
city. 

Millo:  some  portion  of  the  citadel  of  Jerusalem. 

6.  spake  comfortably  to  them  :  Hczekiah's  address  to  the 
people  breathes  the  spirit  of  absolute  confidence  in  God,  and  it 
proved  contagious. 

9,  send  his  servants :  the  account  of  the  embassy  is  condensed 
considerably  from  2  Kings  xviii.  12  ff. 
Xiachish :  cf.  note  on  xxv.  27. 


II  CHRONICLES  32.  ir-i8.     Ch^ 


305 


saith  Sennacherib  king  of  Assyria,  Whereon  do  ye  trust, 
that  ye  abide  the  siege  in  Jerusalem  ?  Doth  not  Hezekiah  1 1 
persuade  you,   to  give  you  over  to  die  by  famine  and 
by  thirst,  saying,  The  Lord  our  God  shall  deliver  us  out 
of  the  hand  of  the  king  of  Assyria  ?     Hath  not  the  same  1 3 
Hezekiah  taken  away  his  high  places  and  his  altars,  and 
commanded    Judah    and   Jerusalem,    saying.    Ye   shall 
worship   before  one  altar,  and  upon  it    shall   ye   burn 
incense  ?     Know  ye  not  what  I  and  my  fathers  have  done  13 
unto  all  the  peoples  of  the  lands  ?    Were  the  gods  of  the 
nations  of  the  lands  any  ways  able  to  deliver  their  land 
out  of  mine  hand  ?     Who  was  there  among  all  the  gods  14 
of  those  nations  which  my  fathers  utterly  destroyed,  that 
could  deliver  his  people  out  of  mine  hand;  that  your  God 
should  be  able  to  deliver  you  out  of  mine  hand?     Now  15 
therefore  let  not  Hezekiah  deceive  you,  nor  persuade  you 
on  this  manner,  neither  believe  ye  him  :  for  no  god  of  any 
nation  or  kingdom  was  able  to  deliver  his  people  out  of 
mine  hand,  and  out  of  the  hand  of  my  fathers  :  how  much 
less  shall  your  God  deliver  you  out  of  mine  hand?    And  16 
his  servants  spake   yet   more   against   the  Lord   God, 
and  against  his  servant  Hezekiah.     He  wrote  also  letters,  17 
to  rail  on  the  Lord,  the  God  of  Israel,  and  to  speak 
against  him,  saying,  As  the  gods  of  the  nations  of  the 
lands,  which  have  not  delivered  their  people  out  of  mine 
hand,  so  shall  not  the  God  of  Hezekiah  deliver  his  people 
out  of  mine  hand.     And  they  cried  with  a  loud  voice  in  18 
the  Jews'  language  unto  the  people  of  Jerusalem  that 

13.  The  ambassadors  refer  to  Sennacherib's  unbroken  record 
of  conquest. 

17.  wrote  .  .  .  letters:  subsequent  to  the  failure  to  cajole  the 
people  into  submission. 

18.  cried  .  .  .  unto  the  people :  the  third  effort  of  Sennacherib 
to  secure  the  city  was  an  appeal  to  treachery. 


3o6      II    CHRONICLES  32.  19-25.     Ch-  Ch  H  Ch 

were  on  the  wall,  to  affright  them,  and  to  trouble  them  ; 

19  that  they  might  take  the  city.  And  they  spake  of  the 
God  of  Jerusalem,  as  of  the  gods  of  the  peoples  of  the 

20  earth,  which  are  the  work  of  men's  hands.  And  Hezekiah 
the  king,  and  Isaiah  the  prophet  the  son  of  Amoz,  prayed 

21  because  of  this,  and  cried  to  heaven.  And  the  Lord  sent 
an  angel,  which  cut  off  all  the  mighty  men  of  valour,  and 
the  leaders  and  captains,  in  the  camp  of  the  king  of 
Assyria.  So  he  returned  with  sham.e  of  face  to  his  own 
land.  And  when  he  was  come  into  the  house  of  his 
god,  they  that  came  forth  of  his  own  bowels  slew  him 

22  there  with  the  sword.  [Ch]  Thus  the  Lord  saved 
Hezekiah  and  the  inhabitants  of  Jerusalem  from  the  hand 
of  Sennacherib  the  king  of  Assyria,  and  from  the  hand  of 

23  all  other ^  and  guided  them  on  every  side.  And  many 
brought  gifts  unto  the  Lord  to  Jerusalem,  and  precious 
things  to  Hezekiah  king  of  Judah  :  so  that  he  was  exalted 
in  the  sight  of  all  nations  from  thenceforth. 

24  [H]  In  those  days  Hezekiah  was  sick  even  unto 
death :  and  he  prayed   unto   the   Lord  ;  [Ch]  and   he 

25  spake  unto  him,  and  gave  him  a  sign.  But  Hezekiah 
rendered  not  again  according  to  the  benefit  done  unto 
him ;  for  his  heart  was  lifted  up :  therefore  there  was 

20.  Isaiah  the  prophet :  to  whom  the  king  sent  the  letters  of 
Sennacherib. 

21.  the  IiOBD  sent  an  angfel :  possibly  the  divine  intervention 
took  the  form  of  a  pestilence  ;  cf.  2  Sam.  xxiv.  15  ff. 

slew  him  :  he  was  murdered  by  his  sons. 

xxxii.  24-33.  Hezekiah'' s  Sickness  and  Death.  The  narrative  of 
the  king's  sickness  and  of  the  close  of  his  reign  is  abridged  from 
2  Kings  XX.     Compare  also  Isa.  xxxviii.  1-8,  21,  22. 

24.  In  those  days :  the  phrase  does  not  necessarily  indicate 
the  time  of  Sennacherib's  invasion,  seeing  that  the  original  context 
of  this  extract  cannot  be  determined  (cf.  Isa,  xxxviii.  i).  In 
this  verse  we  have  a  mere  hint  of  the  incident  of  the  king's  illness 
and  recovery. 


II   CHRONICLES  32.  26-32.     Ch  H^  Ch  Ch^     307 

wrath  upon  him,  and  upon  Judah  and  Jerusalem.      Not-  26 
withstanding  Hezekiah  humbled  himself  for  the  pride  of 
his  heart,  both  he  and  the  inhabitants  of  Jerusalem,  so 
that  the  wrath  of  the  Lord  came  not  upon  them  in 
the  days  of  Hezekiah.     And  Hezekiah  had  exceeding  27 
much  riches  and  honour  :  and  he  provided  him  treasuries 
for  silver,  and  for  gold,  and  for  precious  stones,  and 
for  spices,  and  for  shields,  and  for  all  manner  of  goodly 
vessels ;  storehouses  also  for  the  increase  of  corn  and  28 
wine  and  oil :  and  stalls  for  all  manner  of  beasts,  and 
flocks  in  folds.     Moreover  he  provided  him  cities,  and  29 
possessions  of  flocks  and  herds  in  abundance :  for  God 
had  given  him  very  much  substance.     [H^]  This  same  3° 
Hezekiah  also  stopped  the  upper  spring  of  the  waters 
of  Gihon,  and  brought  them  straight  down  on  the  west 
side  of  the  city  of  David.     [Ch]  And  Hezekiah  prospered 
in    all    his    works.      Howbeit    in    f/ie    business    of  the  31 
ambassadors  of  the  princes  of  Babylon,  who  sent  unto  him 
to  inquire  of  the  wonder  that  was  done  in  the  land,  God 
left  him,  to  try  him,  that  he  might  know  all  that  was  in  his 
heart.     [Ch^]  Now  the  rest  of  the  acts  of  Hezekiah,  and  32 
his  good  deeds,  behold,  they  are  written  in  the  vision 
of  Isaiah  the  prophet  the  son  of  Amoz,  in  the  book  of  the 

25.  Ms  heart  was  lifted  up :  Hezekiah  forgot  his  vows,  and  in 
his  pride  displayed  all  his  resources  to  the  embassy  from  Babylon. 

26.  humbled  himself:  in  response  to  the  message  of  Isaiah 
which  condemned  his  pride. 

30.  the  waters  of  Gihon:  now  known  as  the  Virgin  Spring  ; 
the  waters  were  led  by  way  of  a  canal  under  the  Temple  mount 
into  the  Pool  of  Siloam  on  the  west  side  of  the  hill.  The  object 
was  to  secure  the  water-supply  during  a  siege. 

31.  the  ambassadors  of  the  princes  of  Babylon:  the  prince 
in  question  was  Merodach-baladan.  He  had  been  finally  over- 
thrown by  Sennacherib  before  701  b.  c,  so  that  the  incident 
of  the  embassy  is  not  here  placed  in  its  chronological  order. 

32.  in  the  vision  of  Isaiah :  i.  e.  in  his  prophecies. 

X    2 


3o8      II    CHRONICLES  32.  33—33.  5.     Ch^  H 

33  kings  of  Judah  and  Israel.  And  Hezekiah  slept  with  his 
fathers,  and  they  buried  him  in  the  ascent  of  the 
sepulchres  of  the  sons  of  David :  and  all  Judah  and  the 
inhabitants  of  Jerusalem  did  him  honour  at  his  death. 
And  Manasseh  his  son  reigned  in  his  stead. 

33  [H]  Manasseh  was  twelve  years  old  when  he  began  to 
reign ;  and  he  reigned  fifty  and  five  years  in  Jerusalem. 

2  And  he  did  that  which  was  evil  in  the  sight  of  the  Lord, 
after  the  abominations  of  the  heathen,  whom  the  Lord 

3  cast  out  before  the  children  of  Israel.  For  he  built  again 
the  high  places  which  Hezekiah  his  father  had  broken 
down  ;  and  he  reared  up  altars  for  the  Baalim,  and  made 
Asheroth,  and  worshipped  all  the  host  of  heaven,  and 

4  served  them.  And  he  built  altars  in  the  house  of  the 
Lord,  whereof  the  Lord  said,  In  Jerusalem  shall  my  name 

5  be  for  ever.     And  he  built  altars  for  all  the  host  of  heaven 

33.  the  ascent  of  tlie  sepulchres :  i.  e.  the  higher  ground 
above  the  ancient  royal  burying-place. 

(14)  xxxiii.  1-20.  Reign  of  Manasseh. 
The  account  of  Manasseh's  early  years  is  a  close  parallel  to 
2  Kings  xxi.  i-io,  18  ;  the  details  contained  in  2  Kings  xxi.  11-16 
have  been  omitted,  but  the  narrative  has  been  augmented  by 
original  matter  in  verses  11 -19.  The  chronicler  has  acted  in 
accordance  with  his  peculiar  didactic  motive  in  the  selection  of  his 
material  of  the  punishment  of  Manasseh  and  his  Assyrian  captivity. 
To  omit  this  narrative  of  divine  punishment  of  the  most  re- 
actionary and  idolatrous  of  Judah's  kings  would  have  been  to 
mar  the  value  of  the  history  in  the  compiler's  eyes. 

1.  Manasseh  :  king  of  Judah  from  642  to  638  B.C. 

2.  after  the  abominations  of  the  heathen:  i.e.  the  lingering 
love  for  the  debased  Canaanitish  worship  was  officially  encouraged, 
and  all  the  abominations  of  heathendom,  so  often  partially  eradi- 
cated by  reforming  kings,  were  actively  fostered  by  Manasseh. 

3.  Manasseh  not  only  restored  the  illicit  worship  at  the  high- 
places  and  the  cult  of  the  Baals  and  Asherim,  but  he  inaugurated 
the  worship  of  the  heavenly  bodies.  In  this  we  see  the  influence 
of  Assyria,  where  astral  worship  prevailed. 

4.  altars   in   the  house  of  the    IiO:KD  :  this   exceeds   even 


II   CHRONICLES  33.  6-11.     H  Ch  309 

in  the  two  courts  of  the  house  of  the  Lord.     He  also  6 
made  his  children  to  pass  through  the  fire  in  the  valley  of 
the  son  of  Hinnom :  and  he  practised  augury,  and  used 
enchantments^  and  practised  sorcery,  and  dealt  with  them 
that  had  familiar  spirits,  and  with  wizards  :  he  wrought 
much  evil  in  the  sight  of  the  Lord,  to  provoke  him  to 
anger.     And  he  set  the  graven  image  of  the  idol,  which  7 
he  had  made,  in  the  house  of  God,  of  which  God  said  to 
David  and  to  Solomon  his  son,  In  this  house,  and  in 
Jerusalem,  which  I  have  chosen  out  of  all  the  tribes  of 
Israel,  will  I  put  my  name  for  ever :  neither  will  I  any  s 
more  remove  the  foot  of  Israel  from  off  the  land  which  I 
have  appointed  for  your  fathers ;  if  only  they  will  observe 
to  do  all  that  I  have  commanded  them,  even  all  the  law 
and  the  statutes  and  the  ordinances  by  the   hand  of 
Moses.     And  Manasseh  made  Judah  and  the  inhabitants  9 
of  Jerusalem  to  err,  so  that  they  did  evil  more  than  did 
the    nations,    whom    the    Lord    destroyed    before    the 
children   of    Israel.      [Ch]    And    the   Lord    spake   to  10 
Manasseh,  and  to  his  people :  but  they  gave  no  heed. 
Wherefore  the  Lord  brought  upon  them  the  captains  of  n 
the  host  of  the  king  of  Assyria,  which  took  Manasseh 

the  sin  of  Ahaz,  who  had  polluted  the  Temple  and  suspended  its 
services. 

6.  to  pass  throug'h  the  fire  :  the  whole  system  of  idolatrous 
rites  and  eastern  magic,  so  absolutely  prohibited  in  Deut.  xviii.  10  ff. , 
was  legalized  by  the  king. 

V.  the  graven  imag'e  of  the  idol :  2  Kings  xxi.  7  reads  '  the 
graven  image  of  the  Asherah '  ;  evidently  the  Assyrian  goddess  is 
meant. 

10.  the  LOBD  spake  to  Manasseh:  this  is  a  brief  reference 
to  the  prophetic  warnings  recorded  in  2  Kings  xxi.  10-16. 

they  gave  no  heed:  as  a  chastisement  should,  in  the 
chronicler's  view,  invariably  follow  such  apostasy,  he  diverges 
from  2  Kings  at  this  point  and  gives  the  facts  of  the  Assyrian 
invasion. 

11.  the  king  of  Assyria  :  evidently  Esarhaddon  is  referred  to. 


3IO  II   CHRONICLES  33.  12-17.     Ch 

in  chains,  and  bound  him  with  fetters,  and  carried  him 

12  to  Babylon.  And  when  he  was  in  distress,  he  besought 
the  Lord  his  God,  and  humbled  himself  greatly  before 

13  the  God  of  his  fathers.  And  he  prayed  unto  him;  and 
he  was  intreated  of  him,  and  heard  his  supplication,  and 
brought  him  again  to  Jerusalem  into  his  kingdom. 
Then  Manasseh  knew  that  the  Lord  he  was  God. 

14  Now  after  this  he  built  an  outer  wall  to  the  city  of 
David,  on  the  west  side  of  Gihon,  in  the  valley,  even 
to  the  entering  in  at  the  fish  gate;  and  he  compassed 
about  Ophel,  and  raised  it  up  a  very  great  height :  and  he 
put  valiant  captains  in  all  the  fenced  cities  of  Judah. 

15  And  he  took  away  the  strange  gods,  and  the  idol  out 
of  the  house  of  the  Lord,  and  all  the  altars  that  he  had 
built  in  the  mount  of  the  house  of  the  Lord,  and  in 

16  Jerusalem,  and  cast  them  out  of  the  city.  And  he  built 
up  the  altar  of  the  Lord,  and  offered  thereon  sacrifices  of 
peace  offerings   and  of  thanksgiving,  and  commanded 

17  Judah  to  serve  the  Lord,  the  God  of  Israel.     Neverthe- 


Assyria  was,  at  this  period,  at  the  height  of  its  power.  Egypt 
had  been  reduced  and  all  the  Syrian  states  had  been  brought  into 
subjection.  That  Manasseh  was  among  the  tributaries  is  proved 
by  the  fact  that  his  name  occurs  in  the  rediscovered  records  of  the 
reigns  of  Esarhaddon  and  Ashur-bani-pul.  Esarhaddon  rebuilt 
Babylon  and  long  resided  there,  so  that  he  would  naturally  carry 
any  revolted  vassal  thither. 

in  chains:   A.V.   reads  'among  the  thorns,'  R.V.  margin 
'with  hooks.'     It  is  a  figurative  expression  for  captivity. 

12,  13.  Captivity  produced  the  desired  repentance  and  return 
to  Jehovah.   In  consequence  Manasseh  was  restored  to  his  kingdom. 

14.  Manasseh  signalized  his  return  to  Jerusalem  by  strengthen- 
ing the  fortifications  of  the  city.  He  added  to  Hezekiah's  wall, 
building  eastwards  to  the  Fish  gate  (Neh.  iii.  3)  and  constructing 
a  wall  around  Ophel  (2  Chron.  xxvii.  3).  Moreover  all  the 
fortresses  of  Judah  were  garrisoned. 

15-17.  Manasseh  now  purged  the  Temple  of  the  idolatrous 
symbols  which  he  had  set  up,  and  sought  to  restore  the  worship 


II    CHRONICLES  33.  18-23.     Ch  H  Ch-      311 

less  the  people  did  sacrifice  still  in  the  high  places,  but 
only  unto  the  Lord  their  God.     Now  the  rest  of  the  acts  18 
of  Manasseh,  and  his  prayer  unto  his  God,  and  the  words 
of  the  seers  that  spake  to  him  in  the  name  of  the  Lord, 
the  God  of  Israel,  behold,  they  are  written  among  the  acts 
of  the  kings  of  Israel.     His  prayer  also,  and  how  God  19 
was  intreated  of  him,  and  all  his  sin  and  his  trespass^  and 
the  places  wherein  he  built  high  places,  and  set  up  the 
Asherim   and   the   graven   images,  before   he   humbled 
himself :  behold,  they  are  written  in  the  history  of  Hozai. 
[H]  So  Manasseh  slept  with  his  fathers,  and  they  buried  20 
him  in  his  own  house :  and  Amon  his  son  reigned  in  his 
stead. 

Amon  was  twenty  and  two  years  old  when  he  began  to  21 
reign  ;  and  he  reigned  two  years  in  Jerusalem.      And  he  2  2 
did  that  which  was  evil  in  the  sight  of  the  Lord,  as  did 
Manasseh  his  father :    [Ch^]  and  Amon  sacrificed  unto 
all  the  graven  images  which  Manasseh  his  father  had 
made,  and  served  them.     And  he  humbled  not  himself  23 
before  the  Lord,  as  Manasseh  his  father  had  humbled 
himself;  but  this  same  Amon  trespassed  more  and  more. 

of  Jehovah.  He  found  it  impossible,  however,  to  centraUze  the 
worship,  and  had  to  rest  content  v/ith  substituting  the  worship  of 
Jehovah  for  that  of  the  Baals  at  the  high-places. 

18.  his  prayer :  there  is  a  so-called  '  Prayer  of  Manasses  * 
in  the  Greek  Apocrypha.  But  the  chronicler  refers  his  readers 
for  fuller  information  to  the  'history  of  Hozai,'  an  unknown 
prophet. 

20.  buried  Mm  in  his  own  house :  the  ancient  sepulchres  of 
the  kings  were  no  longer  used.  Manasseh  seems  to  have  been 
interred  in  a  private  tomb  in  the  palace-garden  ;  cf.  2  Kings 
xxi.  18. 

(15)  xxxiii.  21-25.    Reign  of  Amon. 
The    narrative  is  paralleled  by    2    Kings  xxi.    19-24.     Amon 
followed  the  example  of  his  father's  earlier  career,  having  failed 
to  profit  by  the  lesson  of  his  captivity  and  repentance. 

21.  Amon  :  he  reigned  from  638  to  637  b.c. 


312     II  CHRONICLES  33.  24—34.  4.     Ch"  H  Ch 

24  And  his  servants  conspired  against  him,  and  put  him 

25  to  death  in  his  own  house.  [H]  But  the  people  of 
the  land  slew  all  them  that  had  conspired  against 
king  Amon ;  and  the  people  of  the  land  made  Josiah  his 
son  king  in  his  stead. 

34      Josiah  was  eight  years  old  when  he  began  to  reign ; 

2  and  he  reigned  thirty  and  one  years  in  Jerusalem.  And 
he  did  that  which  was  right  in  the  eyes  of  the  Lord,  and 
walked  in  the  ways  of  David  his  father,  and  turned  not 

3  aside  to  the  right  hand  or  to  the  left.  [Ch]  For  in  the 
eighth  year  of  his  reign,  while  he  was  yet  young,  he  began 
to  seek  after  the  God  of  David  his  father :  and  in  the 
twelfth  year  he  began  to  purge  Judah  and  Jerusalem  from 
the  high  places,  and  the  Asherim,  and  the  graven  images, 

4  and  the  molten  images.  And  they  brake  down  the  altars 
of  the  Baalim  in  his  presence ;  and  the  sun-images,  that 
were  on  high  above  them,  he  hewed  down;  and  the 
Asherim,  and  the  graven  images,  and  the  molten  images. 


24.  his  servants  conspired:  a  palace-conspiracy  terminated 
Amon's  reactionary  reign. 

(16)  xxxiv,  XXXV.     Reign  of  Josiah. 

Cf.  2  Kings  xxii,  xxiii.  3-23,  24-30.  The  chronicler  has 
made  the  usual  expansions  and  abridgements  of  his  originals  ; 
he  gives  us  new  matter  in  xxxiv.  12-14,  3^,  33-  Josiah  was 
a  reforming  ruler  from  the  outset,  but  the  all-important  event  of 
the  discovery  of  the  book  of  the  Law  led  to  the  complete 
abolition  of  all  idolatry  and  the  establishment  of  the  Deuteronomic 
system. 

xxxiv.  I,  2.     InirsductioH. 

1.  Josiah :  king  of  Judah  from  637  to  607  b.  c.  To  the  chronicler 
he  is  an  ideal  monarch. 

xxxiv.  3-7.  Idolatry  uprooted.  The  section  appears  in  fuller 
form  in  2  Kings  xxiii.  4-20,  where  it  is  referred  to  the  eighteenth 
year  of  Josiah's  reign  ;  but  the  description  of  his  zeal  for  Jehovah 
was  equally  appHcable  at  any  point  of  his  earlier  career. 

4.  in  his  presence:  Josiah  personally  superintended  the 
overthrow  of  idolatry  in  his  twentieth  year. 


II    CHRONICLES  34.  5-9.     Ch  Ch^  313 

he  brake  in  pieces,  and  made  dust  of  them,  and  strowed 
it  upon  the  graves  of  them  that  had  sacrificed  unto  them. 
And  he  burnt  the  bones  of  the  priests  upon  their  altars,  5 
and  purged  Judah  and  Jerusalem.     And  so  did  he  in  the  6 
cities  of  Manasseh  and  Ephraim  and  Simeon,  even  unto 
Naphtali,  in  their  ruins  round  about.     And  he  brake  7 
down  the  altars,  and  beat  the  Asherim  and  the  graven 
images  into  powder,  and  hewed  down  all  the  sun-images 
throughout  all  the  land  of  Israel,  and  returned  to  Jeru- 
salem. 

[Ch-]  Now  in  the  eighteenth  year  of  his  reign,  when  8 
he  had  purged  the  land,  and  the  house,  he  sent  Shaphan 
the  son  of  Azaliah,  and  Maaseiah  the  governor  of  the 
city,  and  Joah  the  son  of  Joahaz  the  recorder,  to  repair 
the  house  of  the  Lord  his  God.  And  they  came  to  9 
Hilkiah  the  high  priest,  and  dehvered  the  money  that 
was  brought  into  the  house  of  God,  which  the  Levites, 

5.  Ijiirnt  the  bones  :  the  idolatrous  priests  were  exhumed  and 
their  bones  burned  to  defile  the  place  of  heathen  sacrifice. 

6.  so  did  he  in  the  cities  of  Manasseh  and  Ephraim: 
Josiah's  zeal  carried  him  throughout  the  depleted  districts  of 
northern  Israel  as  well  as  through  Simeon. 

xxxiv.  8-18.  Discovery  of  the  Law  {2YJm%%y.yi\\.2,-'i-0')'  Josiah 
next  turned  his  attention  to  the  desolate  Temple.  During  its 
repair  the  priest  Hilkiah  discovered  a  roll  of  the  Law,  which,  it  is 
now  admitted,  must  have  been  practically  identical  with  our  Book  of 
Deuteronomy.  This  book  seems  to  have  been  compiled  in  its 
later  form  towards  the  close  of  the  monarchy,  probably  during 
the  reign  of  Manasseh  ;  from  that  time  it  was  mislaid  until  its 
discovery  in  621  B.C.  For  a  full  discussion  of  the  subject  cf. 
Driver  in  Deuteronomy,  and  Skinner  on  'Kings,'  in  Century  Bible, 
p.  441. 

8.  The  repair  of  the  Temple  was  entrusted  to  three  state  officials, 
Shaphan  (the  secretary),  Maaseiah  (the  city  governor),  and  Joah 
(the  chancellor). 

9.  Hilkiah  the  high  priest:  called  'the  priest'  in  verse  14. 
To  him  the  three  officials  delivered  the  dues  collected  throughout 
the  land. 


314       II    CHRONICLES  34.  10-15.     Ch^  Ch  H 

the  keepers  of  the  door,  had  gathered  of  the  hand  of 
Manasseh  and  Ephraim,  and  of  all  the  remnant  of  Israel, 
and  of  all  Judah  and  Benjamin,  and  of  the  inhabitants  of 

10  Jerusalem.  And  they  delivered  it  into  the  hand  of  the 
workmen  that  had  the  oversight  of  the  house  of  the 
Lord  ;  and  the  workmen  that  wrought  in  the  house  of 

11  the  Lord  gave  it  to  amend  and  repair  the  house;  even 
to  the  carpenters  and  to  the  builders  gave  they  it,  to  buy 
hewn  stone,  and  timber  for  couplings,  and  to  make  beams 
for  the  houses  which  the  kings  of  Judah  had  destroyed. 

12  [Ch]  And  the  men  did  the  work  faithfully  :  and  the 
overseers  of  them  were  Jahath  and  Obadiah,  the  Levites, 
of  the  sons  of  Merari ;  and  Zechariah  and  Meshullam,  of 
the  sons  of  the  Kohathites,  to  set  it  forward:  and  other  of 
the  Levites,  all  that  could  skill  of  instruments  of  music. 

13  Also  they  were  over  the  bearers  of  burdens,  and  set 
forward  all  that  did  the  work  in  every  manner  of  service  : 
and  of  the  Levites  there  were  scribes,  and  officers,  and 

14  porters.  And  when  they  brought  out  the  money  that 
was  brought  into  the  house  of  the  Lord,  Hilkiah  the 
priest  found  the  book  of  the  law  of  the  Lord  given  by 

15  Moses.  [H]  And  Hilkiah  answered  and  said  to  Shaphan 
the  scribe,  I  have  found  the  book  of  the  law  in  the  house 


10,  11.  The  requisite  work  of  repairs  shows  how  completely 
the  fabric  of  the  Temple  had  decayed. 

12.  The  chronicler's  fondness  for  the  Levites  and  the  singers 
is  again  apparent  in  verses  12-14,  which  are  due  to  his  hand 
alone.  Probably,  as  Keil  suggests,  these  singers  were  also 
appointed  overseers  ;  hence  verse  is**  should  be  read  in  continuity 
with  13'^. 

14.  the  book  of  the  law  of  the  LORD  ^ven  hy  Moses :  the 
chronicler  goes  beyond  the  author  of  Kings  in  attributing  it  to 
Moses. 

15,  16.  The  scribe  carries  the  book  of  the  Law  to  the  king  with 
his  report  of  the  repairs  to  the  Temple. 


II   CHRONICLES  34.  16-22.     H  315 

of  the    Lord.      And    Hilkiah   delivered   the   book  to 
Shaphan.     And  Shaphan  carried  the  book  to  the  king,  16 
and  moreover  brought  the  king  word  again,  saying,  All 
that  was  committed  to  thy  servants,  they  do  it.     And  17 
they  have  emptied  out  the  money  that  was  found  in  the 
house  of  the  Lord,  and  have  delivered  it  into  the  hand 
of  the  overseers,  and  into  the  hand  of  the  workmen. 
And  Shaphan  the  scribe  told  the  king,  saying,  Hilkiah  18 
the  priest  hath  delivered  me  a  book.    And  Shaphan  read 
therein  before  the  king.     And  it  came  to  pass,  when  the  19 
king  had  heard  the  words  of  the  law,  that  he  rent  his 
clothes.    And  the  king  commanded  Hilkiah,  and  Ahikam  20 
the  son  of  Shaphan,  and  Abdon  the  son  of  Micah,  and 
Shaphan  the  scribe,  and  Asaiah  the  king's  servant,  saying, 
Go  ye,  inquire  of  the  Lord  for  me,  and  for  them  that  are  21 
left  in  Israel  and  in  Judah,  concerning  the  words  of  the 
book  that  is  found :  for  great  is  the  wrath  of  the  Lord 
that  is  poured  out  upon  us,  because  our  fathers  have  not 
kept  the  word  of  the  Lord,  to  do  according  unto  all  that 
is  written  in  this  book.     So  Hilkiah,  and  they  whom  the  22 
king  had  commanded,  went  to  Huldah  the  prophetess,  the 
wife  of  Shallum  the  son  of  Tokhath,  the  son  of  Hasrah, 
keeper  of  the  wardrobe ;  (now  she  dwelt  in  Jerusalem  in 

18.  Shaphan  read  therein  :  2  Kings  says  he  read  the  entire 
roll  to  the  king. 

xxxiv.  19-28.     Effects  of  the  Discovery  upon  Josiah. 

19.  rent  his  clothes :  the  king  is  filled  with  grief  and  fear  on 
learning  the  penalties  attaching  to  the  irregularities  in  worship 
which  had  been  committed. 

20.  21.  Josiah  immediately  appoints  a  commission  to  seek 
prophetic  guidance  as  to  the  possibility  of  escaping  the  divine 
anger  which  he  feels  to  be  impending  over  the  erring  nation. 

22.  Huldah:  evidently  a  prophetess  of  repute.  Contemporary 
with  her  was  Jeremiah,  but  his  ministry  had  scarcely  become 
a  power  yet. 


3i6  II   CHRONICLES  34.  23-29.     H 

the  second  quarter ;)  and  they  spake  to  her  to  that  effect. 

23  And  she  said  unto  them,  Thus  saith  the  Lord,  the  God 

24  of  Israel :  Tell  ye  the  man  that  sent  you  unto  me,  Thus 
saith  the  Lord,  Behold,  I  will  bring  evil  upon  this  place, 
and  upon  the  inhabitants  thereof,  even  all  the  curses  that 
are  written  in  the  book  which  they  have  read  before  the 

25  king  of  Judah  :  because  they  have  forsaken  me,  and  have 
burned  incense  unto  other  gods,  that  they  might  provoke 
me  to  anger  with  all  the  works  of  their  hands ;  therefore 
is  my  wrath  poured  out  upon  this  place,  and  it  shall  not 

26  be  quenched.  But  unto  the  king  of  Judah,  who  sent  you 
to  inquire  of  the  Lord,  thus  shall  ye  say  to  him.  Thus 
saith  the  Lord,  the  God  of  Israel :    As  touching  the 

2)7  words  which  thou  hast  heard,  because  thine  heart  was 
tender,  and  thou  didst  humble  thyself  before  God,  when 
thou  heardest  his  words  against  this  place,  and  against 
the  inhabitants  thereof,  and  hast  humbled  thyself  before 
me,  and  hast  rent  thy  clothes,   and  wept  before  me; 

28  I  also  have  heard  thee,  saith  the  Lord.  Behold,  I  will 
gather  thee  to  thy  fathers,  and  thou  shalt  be  gathered  to 
thy  grave  in  peace,  neither  shall  thine  eyes  see  all  the 
evil  that  I  will  bring  upon  this  place,  and  upon  the  in- 
habitants thereof.  And  they  brought  the  king  word 
again. 

29  Then  the  king   sent   and   gathered   together  all  the 

23-28.  Huldah  replies  that  the  consequences  of  apostasy  can- 
not be  absolutely  averted  ;  the  law  of  Jehovah  cannot  be  trifled 
with  ;  yet  respite  should  be  given  during  the  reign  of  the  pious 
King  Josiah. 

xxxiv.  29-33.  The  National  Covenant  (c{.i2  Kings  xxui.  1-3).  The 
king's  next  step  was  the  convening  of  a  representative  assembly, 
the  public  reading  of  the  newly  found  law,  and  the  inauguration 
of  a  covenant-compact  binding  the  people  to  observe  the  law. 
By  this  means  the  authority  of  the  Deuteronomic  code  was 
recognized  as  nationall3'  and  individually  obligatory. 


II    CHRONICLES  34.  30— 35.  i.     H  Ch      317 

elders  of  Judah  and  Jerusalem.     And  the  king  went  up  30 
to  the  house  of  the  Lord,  and  all  the  men  of  Judah 
and  the  inhabitants  of  Jerusalem,  and  the  priests,  and  the 
Levites,  and  all  the  people,  both  great  and  small :  and  he 
read  in  their  ears  all  the  words  of  the   book   of  the 
covenant  that  was  found  in  the  house  of  the  Lord.     And  31 
the  king  stood  in  his  place,  and  made  a  covenant  before 
the  Lord,  to  walk   after  the   Lord,  and  to  keep  his 
commandments,  and  his  testimonies,  and  his  statutes, 
with  all  his  heart,  and  with  all  his  soul,  to  perform  the 
words  of  the  covenant  that  were  written  in  this  book. 
[Ch]  And  he  caused  all  that  were  found  in  Jerusalem  and  32 
Benjamin    to    stand    ^0   it.      And    the    inhabitants    of 
Jerusalem  did  according  to  the  covenant  of  God,  the  God 
of  their  fathers.     And  Josiah  took  away  all  the  abomina-  33 
tions   out   of  all   the   countries   that   pertained   to   the 
children  of  Israel,  and  made  all  that  were  found  in  Israel 
to  serve,  even  to  serve  the  Lord  their  God.     All  his  days 
they  departed  not  from  following  the  Lord,  the  God 
of  their  fathers. 

And    Josiah    kept    a    passover    unto    the    Lord    in  35 

30.  the  Iievites :  the  chronicler  repairs  the  omission  of  his 
class  by  the  author  of  2  Kings. 

tlie  book  of  tlie  covenant :  the  title  is  descriptive  of  the 
Book  of  Deuteronomy  in  its  pre-exilic  form. 

31.  in  Ills  place:  2  Kings  says  *  by  the  pillar.' 

made  a  covenant  before  the  IiORD  :  the  transaction  and  the 
vows  of  the  parties  concerned  were  performed  as  in  the  sight  of 
Jehovah. 

32.  to  stand  to  it :  a  sign  of  willingness  to  observe  the  law. 

33.  Josiah  established  the  compulsory  worship  of  Jehovah  as 
widely  as  his  power  extended. 

XXXV.  1-9.      The  Passover. 

The  renewal  of  the  covenant  was  immediately  followed  by  the 
solemn  observance  of  a  national  Passover  in  accordance  with  the 
regulations   of  Deut.  xvi.    1-8.     The   chronicler    describes   this 


3i8  II    CHRONICLES  35.  2-7.     Ch 

Jerusalem  :  and  they  killed  the  passover  on  the  fourteenth 

2  day  of  the  first  month.  And  he  set  the  priests  in  their 
charges,  and  encouraged  them  to  the  service  of  the  house 

3  of  the  Lord.  And  he  said  unto  the  Levites  that  taught 
all  Israel,  which  were  holy  unto  the  Lord,  Put  the  holy  ark 
in  the  house  which  Solomon  the  son  of  David  king 
of  Israel  did  build;  there  shall  no  more  be  a  burden 
upon  your  shoulders  :  now  serve  the  Lord  your  God,  and 

4  his  people  Israel.  And  prepare  yourselves  after  your 
fathers'  houses  by  your  courses,  according  to  the  writing 
of  David  king  of  Israel,  and  according  to  the  writing 

5  of  Solomon  his  son.  And  stand  in  the  holy  place 
according  to  the  divisions  of  the  fathers'  houses  of  your 
brethren  the  children  of  the  people,  and  kt  there  be  for 

6  each  a  portion  of  a  fathers'  house  of  the  Levites.  And 
kill  the  passover,  and  sanctify  yourselves,  and  prepare  for 
your  brethren,  to  do  according  to  the  word  of  the  Lord 

7  by  the  hand  of  Moses.  And  Josiah  gave  to  the  children 
of  the  people,  of  the  flock,  lambs  and  kids,  all  of  them 
for  the  passover  offerings,  unto  all  that  were  present, 
to  the  number  of  thirty  thousand,  and  three  thousand 


Passover  much  more  in  detail  than  does  the  author  of  2  Kings, 
giving  due  prominence  to  the  part  played  by  the  Levites. 

1.  The  prescribed  date  was  duly  observed. 

3.  Put  the  holy  ark  in  the  house  :  the  narrative  implies  that 
during  the  neglect  and  decay  of  the  Temple  the  sacred  Ark  had 
been  removed  from  the  shrine.  Whatever  the  Levites  may  have 
proposed  to  do  (and  some  critics  surmise  a  proposed  public 
procession),  Josiah  prohibits  their  bearing  the  Ark  ;  he  orders 
them  to  replace  it  in  its  right  position  and  to  give  themselves  to 
their  other  duties. 

4-6.  The  king  reappoints  the  Levitic  courses  and  orders  them 
to  perform  the  rites  of  purification  and  attend  to  the  Passover. 

*I.  Josiah's  gifts  of  cattle  reached  to  three  times  the  number 
presented  by  Hezekiah,  and  they  were  further  added  to  by  the 
princes  and  chief  priests. 


II   CHRONICLES  35.  8-15.     Ch  319 

bullocks :    these   were   of  the   king's   substance.      And  8 
his  princes  gave  for  a  freewill  offering  unto  the  people,  to 
the  priests,  and  to  the  Levites.     Hilkiah  and  Zechariah 
and  Jehiel,  the  rulers  of  the  house  of  God,  gave  unto  the 
priests  for  the  passover  offerings  two  thousand  and  six 
hundred  small  cattle^  and  three  hundred  oxen.     Conaniah  9 
also,  and   Shemaiah   and   Nethanel,  his   brethren,  and 
Hashabiah   and   Jeiel   and  Jozabad,  the  chiefs  of  the 
Levites,  gave  unto  the  Levites  for  the  passover  offerings 
five  thousand  S7nall  cattle^  and  five  hundred  oxen.     So  10 
the  service  was  prepared,  and  the  priests  stood  in  their 
place,  and  the  Levites  by  their  courses,  according  to  the 
king's  commandment.     And  they  killed  the  passover,  and  r  1 
the  priests  sprinkled  the  bloody  which  they  received  of  their 
hand,  and  the  Levites  flayed  them.     And  they  removed  12 
the  burnt  offerings,  that  they  might  give  them  according 
to  the  divisions  of  the  fathers'  houses  of  the  children 
of  the  people,  to  offer  unto  the  Lord,  as  it  is  written 
in  the  book  of  Moses.     And  so  did  they  with  the  oxen. 
And  they  roasted  the  passover  with  fire  according  to  the  13 
ordinance :  and  the  holy  offerings  sod  they  in  pots,  and 
in  caldrons,  and  in  pans,  and  carried  them  quickly  to  all 
the  children  of  the  people.     And  afterward  they  prepared  14 
for  themselves,  and  for  the  priests ;  because  the  priests 
the  sons  of  Aaron  ivere  busied  in   offering  the   burnt 
offerings  and  the  fat  until  night :  therefore  the  Levites  pre- 
pared for  themselves,  and  for  the  priests  the  sons  of  Aaron. 
And  the  singers  the  sons  of  Asaph  were  in  their  place,  15 
according  to  the  commandment  of  David,  and  Asaph,  and 
Heman,  and  Jeduthun  the  king's  seer ;  and  the  porters 
were  at  every  gate :  they  needed  not  to  depart  from  their 

12.  Each  course  rendered  its  service  in  rotation. 


320         II    CHRONICLES  35.  16^20.     Ch  Ch« 

service,  for  their  brethren  the  Levites  prepared  for  them. 

16  So  all  the  service  of  the  Lord  was  prepared  the  same  day, 
to  keep  the  passover,  and  to  offer  burnt  offerings  upon  the 
altar  of  the  Lord,  according  to  the  commandment  of  king 

17  Josiah.  And  the  children  of  Israel  that  were  present 
kept  the  passover  at  that  time,  and  the  feast  of  unleavened 

18  bread  seven  days.  [Ch^]  And  there  was  no  passover  like 
to  that  kept  in  Israel  from  the  days  of  Samuel  the 
prophet ;  neither  did  any  of  the  kings  of  Israel  keep  such 
a  passover  as  Josiah  kept,  and  the  priests,  and  the  Levites, 
and  all  Judah  and  Israel  that  were  present,  and  the 

19  inhabitants  of  Jerusalem.  In  the  eighteenth  year  of  the 
reign  of  Josiah  was  this  passover  kept. 

20  After  all  this,  when  Josiah  had  prepared  the  temple. 


15.  tlie  Levites  prepared  for  them  :  no  respite  from  service 
during  the  great  feast  was  given  either  to  priests  or  singers;  but 
they  vi^ere  only  enabled  to  sta}''  at  their  posts  by  the  aid  of  the 
Levites.  Throughout  the  festival,  the  continued  service  of  priests, 
Levites,  porters,  and  orchestra  was  compulsory. 

18.  This  Passover  not  only  surpassed  that  of  Hezekiah,  but 
excelled  any  festival  since  the  early  days  of  the  kingdom. 

19.  In  the  eighteenth  year:  as  this  was  the  year  of  the 
discovery  of  the  law,  the  date  is  reckoned  according  to  the  old 
Hebrew  calendar  by  which  the  year  commenced  in  the  autumn. 

XXXV.  20-27.  Nechds  invasion  and  death  of  Josiah.  At  this 
time  the  power  of  Assyria  was  being  shaken  to  its  foundation  by 
the  invasions  of  the  Chaldeans  and  Medes.  Consequently, 
Necho  II  of  Egypt  seized  the  opportunity  to  re-establish  his 
supremacy  over  Syria.  Marching  towards  the  Euphrates  he  had 
to  cross  Palestine.  Josiah  determined  to  oppose  his  passage. 
The  reasons  for  this  are  unknown  ;  but  he  may  have  desired  to 
vindicate  the  ancient  liberties  of  his  own  country.  He  met  Necho 
at  Megiddo  and  fell  in  battle  there  in  608  b.  c.  (cf.  2  Kings  xxiii. 
25-3o\ 

20.  After  all  this :  the  phrase  suggests  a  certain  amount  of 
mystery  about  the  event  which  must  have  baffled  the  chronicler. 
According  to  all  his  theories  of  retribution  there  should  have  been 
nought  but  blessing  for  such  a  monarch  and  his  purified  land. 


II    CHRONICLES  35.  21-24.     Ch^  Ch  Ch^'     321 

Neco  king  of  Egypt  went  up  to  fight  against  Carchemish 
by    Euphrates :     and    Josiah    went    out    against    him. 
[Ch]    But  he  sent   ambassadors  to  him,   saying,  What  21 
have  I  to  do  with  thee,  thou  king  of  Judah  ?    /  co77ie  not 
against  thee  this  day,  but  against  the  house  wherewith 
I  have  war;   and  God  hath  commanded  me  to  make 
haste :    forbear  thee  from  jneddling  with  God,  who   is 
with  me,  that  he  destroy  thee  not.     Nevertheless  Josiah  22 
would  not  turn  his  face  from  him,  but  disguised  himself, 
that  he  might  fight  with  him,  and  hearkened  not  unto 
the  words  of  Neco,  from  the  mouth  of  God,  and  came  to 
fight  in  the  valley  of  Megiddo.     And  the  archers  shot  at  23 
king  Josiah ;  and  the  king  said  to  his  servants,  Have  me 
away ;  for  I  am  sore  wounded.      [Ch'^]     So  his  servants  24 
took  him  out  of  the  chariot,  and  put  him  in  the  second 
chariot  that  he  had,  and  brought  him  to  Jerusalem ;  and 
he  died,  and  was  buried  in  the  sepulchres  of  his  fathers. 
And    all   Judah   and   Jerusalem    mourned    for    Josiah. 

ITeco  :  i.  e.  Necho  II,  son  of  Psammetichus  ;  he  reigned  over 
Egypt  from  609  to  594  b.  c. 

Carclieinish :  the  modern  Jerabis,  on  the  west  bank  of  the 
Euphrates.  It  was  a  great  fortress,  the  centre  of  an  important 
trade  and  the  early  northern  capital  of  the  Hittite  empire. 

Josiali  went  out  agrainst  him :  to  oppose  his  passage 
through  Galilee. 

21.  God  liatli  commanded  me  to  make  haste :  Necho  pleaded 
that  he  was  executing  the  will  of  Jehovah  and  that  Josiah  would 
be  doing  wrong  to  force  hostilities  with  him. 

22.  the  words  of  Neco,  from  the  month  of  God :  the  chronicler 
in  reporting  these  words  shows  himself  in  line  with  the  great 
prophets  who  had  always  recognized  Jehovah's  sovereignty  over 
the  world-rulers  and  the  heathen. 

Me^ddo :  the  ancient  city  and  stronghold  of  northern  Israel, 
situated  on  the  trade  and  military  route  between  Egypt  and  the 
Euphrates.  Probably  it  is  identical  with  the  modern  LejjQn,  four 
miles  north  of  Taanach,  in  the  plain  of  Esdraelon. 

24.  The  wounded  king  is  driven  back  to  Jerusalem  only  for 
burial  amid  the  universal  lamentation  of  his  people. 


32  2     II  CHRONICLES  35.  25—86.  4.     Ch  Ch^  H 

25  [Ch]  And  Jeremiah  lamented  for  Josiah  :  and  all  the 
singing  men  and  singing  women  spake  of  Josiah  in  their 
lamentations,  unto  this  day ;  and  they  made  them  an 
ordinance  in  Israel :  and,  behold,  they  are  written  in  the 

26  lamentations.  [Ch^]  Now  the  rest  of  the  acts  of  Josiah, 
and  his  good  deeds,  according  to  that  which  is  written  in 

27  the  law  of  the  Lord,  and  his  acts,  first  and  last,  behold, 
they  are  written  in  the  book  of  the  kings  of  Israel  and 
Judah. 

36  [H]  Then  the  people  of  the  land  took  Jehoahaz  the 
son  of  Josiah,  and  made  him  king  in  his  father's  stead  in 

2  Jerusalem.  Joahaz  was  twenty  and  three  years  old  when 
he  began  to  reign  ;   and  he  reigned  three  months   in 

3  Jerusalem.  And  the  king  of  Egypt  deposed  him  at 
Jerusalem,  and  amerced  the  land  in  an  hundred  talents 

4  of  silver  and  a  talent  of  gold.  And  the  king  of  Egypt 
made  Eliakim  his  brother  king  over  Judah  and  Jerusalem, 
and  changed  his  name  to  Jehoiakim.  And  Neco  took 
Joahaz  his  brother,  and  carried  him  to  Egypt. 


25.  Jeremiah  lamented:  i.e.  composed  the  funeral  ode,  the 
dirge,  for  the  fallen  monarch. 

written  in  the  lamentations :  probably  a  lost  collection  of 
funeral  elegies.     It  cannot  be  referred  to  Lam.  iv.  20. 

(17)  xxxvi.      Concluding  Years  of  the  Monarchy. 

xxxvi.  1-4.  Reign  of  Jehoahaz.  Crowned  immediately  upon 
Josiah's  death,  Jehoahaz  reigned  only  three  months  ;  he  was  then 
deposed  by  Necho  and  imprisoned,  while  the  land  was  made  a 
dependency  of  Egypt.  Jehoahaz  died  in  captivity  in  Egypt,  and 
his  melancholy  end  was  celebrated  by  Ezekiel  in  his  stately  elegy 
of  ch.  xix  (cf.  2  Kings  xxiii.  30-35). 

1,  Jehoahaz :  reigned  for  three  months  in  607  b.  c. 

3.  amerced  the  land :  as  a  penalty  for  the  resistance  offered  to 
the  Egyptian  armies. 

4.  Eliakim :  the  name  was  changed  to  Jehoiakim,  merely  by 
altering  the  initial  syllables  from  one  name  of  God  (El)  to  another 
(Yahweh). 


II   CHRONICLES  36.  5-9.     H  Ch^  323 

Jehoiakim  was  twenty  and   five   years   old  when  he  5 
began  to  reign  ;  and  he  reigned  eleven  years  in  Jerusalem : 
and  he  did  that  which  was  evil  in  the  sight  of  the  Lord 
his  God.     Against  him  came  up  Nebuchadnezzar  king  6 
of  Babylon,  and  bound  him  in  fetters,  to  carry  him  to 
Babylon.     Nebuchadnezzar  also  carried  of  the  vessels  of  7 
the  house  of  the  Lord  to  Babylon,  and  put  them  in  his 
temple  at  Babylon.    Now  the  rest  of  the  acts  of  Jehoakim,  8 
and  his  abominations  which  he  did,  and  that  which  was 
found  in  him,  behold,  they  are  written  in  the  book  of  the 
kings   of  Israel   and   Judah  :    and   Jehoiachin   his    son 
reigned  in  his  stead. 

[Ch^]  Jehoiachin  was  eight  years  old  when  he  began  9 
to  reign ;  and  he  reigned  three  months  and  ten  days  in 

xxxvi.  5-8.  Reign  of  Jehoiakim.  During  this  reign  the  balance 
of  Oriental  power  underwent  a  complete  readjustment.  Nineveh 
fell  in  607  B.C.  and  the  Assyrian  empire  was  divided.  Nabopolassar 
established  himself  in  the  western  half  at  Babylon  and,  as  the 
first  effort  of  his  reign,  dispatched  his  son  Nebuchadnezzar  to 
dislodge  Necho  from  Syria.  At  the  great  battle  of  Carchemish, 
605  B.C.,  Necho  was  crushed  and  the  supremacy  fell  to  Babylon 
under  its  king  Nebuchadnezzar,  who  now  succeeded  his 
father.  Towards  the  new  paramount  power  Jehoiakim  adopted 
an  attitude  of  alternating  submission  and  revolt,  ending  in  overthrow 
and  captivity  (cf  2  Kings  xxiii.  36 — xxiv.  7). 

5.  Jelioiakim:  king  of  Judah  from  607  to  597  e.g. 

6.  Nebuchadnezzar:  ruler  of  Babylon  from  605  to  561  B.C. 

to  carry  h.inx  to  Babylon :  the  dates  of  the  rebellion  and  its 
suppression  are  uncertain.  Most  probably  the  king  did  not  attempt 
to  throw  off  the  yoke  until  near  the  close  of  his  reign.  Jehoiakim 
was  never  actually  carried  into  captivity. 

8.  Ms  abominations :  i.  e.  religious  apostasy. 

xxxvi.  9,  10.  Reign  of  Jehoiachin.  Soon  after  Jehoiachin's  acces- 
sion the  avenging  armies  of  Babylon  arrived  and  besieged  the  capital. 
When  the  city,  after  a  brief  resistance,  fell,  there  followed  the 
first  Captivity.  All  the  leading  inhabitants  were  deported  to 
Babylon.  This  event  in  597  b.c.  was  the  virtual  close  of  the 
Judean  monarchy. 

9.  eigflit  years  old :  read  *  eighteen '  with  2  Kings,  LXX, 
Syriac. 

y  z 


324        II    CHRONICLES  36.  10-14.     Ch^  Ch 

Jerusalem:  and  he  did  thatwhich  was  evil  in  the  sight  of  the 

10  Lord.  And  at  the  return  of  the  year  king  Nebuchadnezzar 
sent,  and  brought  him  to  Babylon,  with  the  goodly  vessels 
of  the  house  of  the  Lord,  and  made  Zedekiah  his  brother 
king  over  Judah  and  Jerusalem. 

1 1  Zedekiah  was  twenty  and  one  years  old  when  he  began 

12  to  reign  ;  and  he  reigned  eleven  years  in  Jerusalem  :  and 
he  did  that  which  was  evil  in  the  sight  of  the  Lord  his 
God ;  [Ch]  he  humbled  not  himself  before  Jeremiah  the 

13  prophet  speaki?ig  from  the  mouth  of  the  Lord.  And  he 
also  rebelled  against  king  Nebuchadnezzar,  who  had  made 
him  swear  by  God  :  but  he  stiffened  his  neck,  and  hard- 
ened his  heart  from  turning  unto  the  Lord,  the  God  of 

14  Israel.  Moreover  all  the  chiefs  of  the  priests,  and  the 
people,  trespassed  very  greatly  after  all  the  abominations  of 
the  heathen  ;   and  they  polluted  the  house  of  the  Lord 

10.  at  the  return  of  the  year :  i.  e.  the  spring  campaigning 

season. 

Zedekiah  his  brother :  from  2  Kings  xxiv.  17  we  learn  that 
he  was  really  Jehoiachin's  uncle,  a  younger  son  of  Josiah. 

xxxvi.  11-21.  Reign  of  Zedekiah.  The  concluding  reign  in 
Judean  history  was  one  of  vacillation.  The  king  leaned  now  to 
the  local  party  and  now  toward  submission  to  Babylon.  For 
awhile  he  plotted  with  the  neighbouring  states  and  then  openly 
revolted  from  Babylon.  Thereupon  the  city  was  besieged  by  the 
Chaldean  army,  and  after  eighteen  months  a  breach  was  made  in 
the  walls.  The  king's  attempt  to  escape  proved  abortive  ;  he  was 
captured  and  sent  in  chains  to  Babylon,  while  Jerusalem  was 
devastated.  The  overthrow  of  Jerusalem  is  usually  dated  587  b.  c. 
(cf.  2  Kings  xxiv.  i8-xxv.  21). 

11.  Zedekiah  reigned  from  597  to  587  b.  c. 

12.  before  Jeremiah:  the  great  prophet's  ministry  continued 
In  Jerusalem  throughout  this  reign,  while  Ezekiel  meantime 
laboured  among  the  exiles  on  the  Chebar. 

13.  had  made  him.  swear  by  God :  Zedekiah  violated  his 
solemn  oath  of  allegiance. 

14.  polluted  the  house  of  the  IiOBD  :  Ezekiel,  in  one  of  his 
visions,  describes  the  superstitions  and  heathen  rites  practised  by 
all  classes  of  the  community. 


II    CHRONICLES  36.  15-21.    Ch  325 

which  he  had  hallowed  in  Jerusalem.     And  the  Lord,  15 
the  God  of  their  fathers,  sent  to  them  by  his  messengers, 
rising  up  early  and  sending  ;  because  he  had  compassion 
on    his  people,  and  on   his   dwelling   place :    but   they  16 
mocked  the  messengers  of  God,  and  despised  his  words, 
and  scoffed  at  his  prophets,  until  the  wrath  of  the  Lord 
arose    against   his   people,    till   there   was   no    remedy. 
Therefore  he  brought  upon  them  the  king  of  the  Chal-  17 
deans,  who  slew  their  young  men  with  the  sword  in  the 
house  of  their  sanctuary,  and  had  no  compassion  upon 
young  man  or  maiden,  old  man  or  ancient :    he  gave 
them  all   into  his   hand.     And  all   the  vessels   of  the  18 
house  of  God;  great  and  small,  and  the  treasures  of  the 
house  of  the  Lord,  and  the  treasures  of  the  king,  and  of 
his  princes  ;  all  these  he  brought  to  Babylon.    And  they  19 
burnt  the  house  of  God,  and  brake  down  the  wall  of 
Jerusalem,  and  burnt  all  the  palaces  thereof  with  fire, 
and  destroyed  all  the  goodly  vessels  thereof.     And  them  20 
that   had  escaped  from  the  sword  carried  he  away  to 
Babylon  ;   and  they  were  servants  to  him  and  his  sons 
until  the  reign  of  the  kingdom  of  Persia :    to  fulfil  the  2 1 
word  of  the  Lord  by  the  mouth  of  Jeremiah,  until  the 
land  had  enjoyed  her  sabbaths  :  for  as  long  as  she  lay 
desolate  she  kept  sabbath,  to  fulfil  threescore  and  ten 
years. 

16.  till  there  was  no  remedy  :  the  point  had  been  reached  at 
which  forbearance  and  mercy  could  no  longer  be  exercised  on  the 
apostate  people. 

17.  We  have  here  no  historic  details  of  the  siege,  which  is  merely 
presented  to  the  reader  in  a  vivid  and  rhetorical  figure  indicating 
utter  destruction. 

xxxvi.  18-20.  All  the  portable  vessels  were  carried  to  Babylon 
and  the  historic  buildings  of  the  capital  were  dismantled. 

20.  until  the  reign  of  the  king-dom  of  Persia :  the  Captivity 
outlasted  the  Babylonian  dynasty. 

21.  threescore  and  ten  years:  in  Lev.  xxv.  1-7  we  find  the 


326  II    CHRONICLES  36.  22,  23.     H 

22  [H]  Now  in  the  first  year  of  Cyrus  king  of  Persia, 
that  the  word  of  the  Lord  by  the  mouth  of  Jeremiah 
might  be  accomphshed,  the  Lord  stirred  up  the  spirit 
of  Cyrus  king  of  Persia,  that  he  made  a  proclamation 
throughout  all  his  kingdom,  and  put  it  also  in  writing, 

23  saying,  Thus  saith  Cyrus  king  of  Persia,  All  the  kingdoms 
of  the  earth  hath  the  Lord,  the  God  of  heaven,  given  me; 
and  he  hath  charged  me  to  build  him  an  house  in  Jeru- 
salem, which  is  in  Judah.  Whosoever  there  is  among 
you  of  all  his  people,  the  Lord  his  God  be  with  him,  and 
let  him  go  up. 

law  of  the  sabbaths  of  the  land,  for  the  neglect  of  which  the 
Captivity  was  to  compensate. 

xxxvi.  22,  23.  The  Decree  of  Cyrus.  These  concluding  verses 
are  identical  with  the  opening  -words  of  the  Book  of  Ezra.  They 
form  a  kind  of  postscript  to  the  Judean  history,  and  were  probably 
allowed  to  stand  here  to  show  that  the  national  history  did  not 
end  in  calamity.  But  the  dividing  line  where  the  narrative  of 
Chronicles  terminates  has  been  drawn  in  the  very  middle  of  a 
verse  (Ezra  i.  3).  This  is  not,  indeed,  absolute  proof  that  the 
Chronicles  and  Ezra-Nehemiah  are  both  the  work  of  the  same 
author,  for  verses  22,  23  may  have  been  added  from  Ezra-Nehemiah 
by  the  chronicler  or  a  later  redactor ;  yet  they  afford  a  strong 
presumption  towards  the  identity. 

22.  in  tlie  first  year  of  Cyrus :  the  founder  of  the  old  Persian 
empire  who  wrested  the  Chaldean  supremacy  from  Nabonidus  by 
revolution,  treachery,  and  force  of  arms.  In  539  b.c.  he  entered 
Babylon  as  a  conqueror.  He  reigned  from  538  to  529  B.C.  In  the 
year  538  b.c.  he  issued  his  edict  permitting  the  Jews  to  return  to 
Jerusalem. 


INDEX 


Aaron,  151. 

Abiathar,  114. 

Abijah,  234. 

Abishai,  96,  130. 

Abraham,  38. 

Adam,  36. 

Adullam,  94,  228. 

Ahab,  250. 

Ahaz,  286,  289. 

Ahaziah,  262,  266. 

Ahijah,  46,  159,  225. 

Ahitophel,  165. 

Alamoth,  115. 

Algum  trees,  183. 

Almug  trees,  183. 

Amasai,  100. 

Amaziah,  277. 

Ammon,  132,  257. 

Amon,  311. 

Angel,  140. 

Apostasy,  279. 

Ariel,  sons  of,  96. 

Ark,  66. 

—  removal  of,  105,  112. 

Army,  161. 

Asa,  238. 

Asahel,  162. 

Asaph,  118,  121,  155. 

Asaphites,  118,  155. 

Ascent  of  Ziz,  259. 

Asher,  75. 

Asherim,  238. 

Assyria,  289,  297. 

Athaliah,  264,  266. 

Authorship  of  Chronicles,  10. 

Azariah,  241,  267,  284,  301. 

Baalah,  108. 
Baasha,  238. 
Beer-sheba,  138. 
Benaiah,  96. 


Benhadad,  245. 
Benjamites,  76. 
Beracah,  261. 
Beth-lehem,  228. 
Beth-shemesh,  289. 
Bezalel,  45,  178. 
Boaz,  192. 

Caleb,  43. 
Calebites,  47,  53. 
Candlesticks,  194. 
Captivity,  60,  79,  222. 
Carchemish,  321. 
Census,  137. 
Chariot,  169,  180. 
Chelubai,  43. 
Cherethites,  131. 
Cherubim,  169,  189. 
Chidon,  108. 
Chronicles,  authors  of,  10. 

—  Book  of,  3. 

—  chronology  of,  31. 

—  contents,  6. 
Courts  of  Temple,  209. 
Covenant,  91,  235. 
Cubit,  188. 

Cyrus,  4,  326. 

Dagon,  89. 

Damascus,  129,  290. 

Dan,  138,  245. 

Daniel,  49. 

Daric,  171. 

David,  48,  85. 

Dedication  of  Temple.  197,  208. 

Devoted,  42. 

Discovery  of  Law,  248. 

Discrepancies,  17. 

Door-keepers,  157. 

Dreams,  177,  210. 

Drove,  180. 


;28 


I   AND   II   CHRONICLES 


Edom,  39,  277,  289. 
Egypt,  181,  209. 
Eliakim,  322. 
Elijah,  265. 
Eloth,  281. 
Engedi,  257. 
Ephraim,  73. 
Esar-haddon,  309. 
Esau,  39. 
Ethiopians,  239. 
Ezion-geber,  215. 

Footstool,  220. 
Fortifications,  227,  247. 

Gad,  59,  140. 
Gath,  128. 
Gedor,  56. 
Genealogies,  36. 
Gershon,  148. 
Gibeon,  177. 
Gihon,  307. 
Gilboa,  88. 
Goliath,  J  36. 
Gozan,  62. 

Hagrites,  59. 
Hamath,  108,  130. 
Hanani,  245. 
Hanun,  132. 
Haroeh,  48. 
Hazarmaveth,  38, 
Hebron,  47,  91. 
Heroes,  David's,  93. 
Hezekiah,  291. 
Hezron,  42. 
High-places,  177,  244. 
High-priests,  62,  67. 
Hilkiah,  313. 
Hinnom,  Valley  of,  287. 
Hiram,  no. 
Hold,  the,  99. 
Holy  Place,  188. 
Horses,  221. 
Huldah,  315. 
Huppim,  72. 


Huram,  182. 
Huram-abi,  184. 

Iddo,  233. 
Isaiah,  281,  284. 
Israel,  39,  119. 
Issachar,  71,  104. 

Jabesh-gilead,  89. 
Jachin,  192. 
Jahaziel,  259. 
Jair,  137. 
Jashobeam,  162. 
Jechoniah,  50. 
Jehoahaz,  280,  322. 
Jehoiachin,  323. 
Jehoiada,  103, 
Jehoiakim,  323. 
Jehoram,  263. 
Jehoshabeath,  268. 
Jehoshaphat,  247. 
Jehovah,  93. 
Jehu,  255. 

Jerahmeel,  43,  45,  46. 
Jeremiah,  315. 
Jerioth,  44. 
Jeroboam,  223. 
Jerusalem,  92. 
Jezreel,  267. 
Joash,  272,  279 
Josiah,  312. 
Jotham,  285. 
Judah,  41,  52. 

Kenan,  37. 
Kenites,  48. 
Kirjath-jearim,  108. 
Kohathites,  65,  149 
Korahites,  99. 

Lachish,  228,  281. 
Lamentations,  322. 
Latter  Prophets,  3. 
Law,  145?  248. 
Lebanon,  house  of,  219. 
Levites,  65,  82,  107,  153,  269. 
Levitical  cities,  68. 


INDEX 


329 


Libnah,  264. 
Lubim,  231. 

Machir,  45. 

Manasseh,  61,  73,  308. 
Medeba,  133. 
Megiddo,  321. 
Merarites,  65,  149. 
Meunim,  257,  260. 
Micaiah,  234,  251. 
Michal,  117. 
Midrash,  25,  257. 
Millo,  92. 
Moab,  55. 
Moriah,  186. 
Most  holy  house,  189. 
Mulberry  trees,  112. 
Music,  114,  154. 

Nadab,  151. 
Nahash,  132. 
Nahshon,  44. 
Name,  108. 
Naphtali,  72. 
Nathan,  123,  201. 
Nebuchadnezzar,  65,  323. 
Necho,  321. 
Nethinim,  80. 
Noah,  37. 

Obed-edom,  109,  122,  158. 

Oded,  241,  288. 

Ophel,  285. 

Ophir,  216. 

Oracle,  190. 

Oman,  140. 

Palace,  181. 
Parbar,  159. 
Parvaim,  189. 
Pas-dammim,  94. 
Passover,  296,  317. 
Pekah,  287. 
Pelethites,  131. 
Perez-uzza,  109. 
Philistines,  87. 
Poetry,  101,  200. 


Porch,  188. 

Porters,  82. 

Prayer,  126,  202. 

Priests,  81. 

Prophets,  225.  241,  255. 

Psalms,  119,  207. 

Pul,  61. 

Queen  of  Sheba,  216. 

Rabbah,  135. 
Ram,  43. 

Ramoth-gilead,  250. 
Rehoboam,  223,  226. 
Reuben,  57. 
Revolt  of  tribes,  222, 
Rezin,  287. 

Sacrifices,  214. 

Samaria,  279. 

Samuel,  66. 

Satan,  137. 

Saul,  76,  84. 

Sea  of  brass,  130,  192. 

Seir,  39. 

Sennacherib,  303. 

Septuagint,  30. 

Sharon,  165. 

Shavsha,  131. 

Shechem,  223. 

Shekel,  146. 

Shemaiah,  227. 

Sheminith,  115. 

Shenazzar,  50. 

Shields,  219. 

Shihor,  107. 

Shishak,  231. 

Shuppim,  159. 

Simeon,  55. 

Solomon,  144,  176. 

Spirit,  168. 

Sukkim,  231. 

Syrian  wars,  132,  276,  287. 

Syrians,  276. 

Tabernacle,  198. 
Tables,  194. 


33° 


I   AND   II   CHRONICLES 


Tadmor,  213. 
Talent,  145. 
Tarshish  ships,  220. 
Tax  of  Moses,  273. 
Temple,  145,  185. 
—  music,  114,  154. 
Tekoa,  45,  228. 
The  Thirty,  97. 
The  Three,  93. 
Tibhath,  130. 

Tilgath-pilneser,  58,  61,  290. 
Tribal  raids,  57,  76. 

Uriah,  98. 
Uzziah,  281. 


Valley  of  Salt,  130, 

Well  of  Beth-lehem,  95. 
Worship,  121,  173. 

Zadok,  103,  114,  122. 
Zechariah,  275,  282. 
Zedekiah,  50,  324. 
Zemaraim,  234. 
Zephathah,  240. 
Zerah,  42,  239. 
Zerubbabel,  50. 
Ziklag,  98. 
Zion,  198. 
Zobah,  129. 


OXFORD:    HORACE  HART 
PRINTER   TO  THE  UNIVERSITY 


r^ 


Overnight   Date  Due   Pvernight 

f^cuat 

rniiiiMTW 

9 

